GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — With Palestine becoming a member of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), one of the largest environmental groups, Palestinians have realized a long-sought-after achievement in light of Israeli practices that threaten their environment and prevent them from benefitting from their natural resources.

Palestine joined the IUCN — which includes 1,066 nongovernmental and 217 governmental organizations and has observer and consultative status at the United Nations — during the group’s World Conservation Congress held in Hawaii, Aug. 30-Sept. 10. Some 1,000 participants representing governments and organizations and around 10,000 others attended the congress, which focused on IUCN strategic policies for 2017 through 2020.

Imad Atrash, director of the Palestine Wildlife Society in the West Bank, told Al-Monitor that Palestine could not have become a member of the IUCN without UN acknowledgment of it as a nonmember state and acceptance in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Atrash believes IUCN membership will produce significant benefits for Palestine. Among them, Palestinian experts will be allowed to take part in global associations for nature preservation. Also, Palestine will be able to better expose and possibly legally challenge Israel for practices that result in environmental destruction, in particular through the building of settlements, turning nature reserves into closed military zones and destroying reserves to build the separation wall.