MIDEASTENVIRONET - The Middle East Environmental Network

DEMOCRACY

By Karin Kloosterman August 03, 2007

Doctor Livingstone, Columbus, and Neil Armstrong had at least one thing in common: all three were keen on chartering new territory. Today it isn't so easy for adventurers to set their sails towards land never before encountered. Instead, the adventurous are turning to other realms of discovery - bridging the distance between cultures.

Continue reading "Israelis teach social justice 'out of their backpacks' in Nepal" »

Posted by MEEF at 01:25 PM | Permalink

DEMOCRACY

By Karin Kloosterman August 03, 2007

Doctor Livingstone, Columbus, and Neil Armstrong had at least one thing in common: all three were keen on chartering new territory. Today it isn't so easy for adventurers to set their sails towards land never before encountered. Instead, the adventurous are turning to other realms of discovery - bridging the distance between cultures.

Continue reading "Israelis teach social justice 'out of their backpacks' in Nepal" »

Posted by MEEF at 01:25 PM | Permalink

Jordan Times

By Hana Namrouqa

AMMAN -- The Ministry of Environment has instructed 16 farms in the Ghor to
relocate to areas removed from residential neighbourhoods after repeated
complaints of foul odours being emitted from their premises, a ministry
official said on Saturday.

Continue reading "16 dairy farms asked to relocate away from residential areas" »

Posted by MEEF at 08:31 PM | Permalink

Jordan Times

Aug. 5, 2007

Hani Hazaimeh

AMMAN -- The emergence of 11 diarrhoea cases over the weekend in the Rihab District of Mafraq does not constitute another water pollution crisis in the governorate, a district official said on Saturday.

Continue reading "'Rihab diarrhoea cases do not signal new water crisis' -- district official" »

Posted by MEEF at 07:46 PM | Permalink

Haaretz

August 2, 2007

By Nadav Shragai

Avri Ran is a leader of the Hilltop Youth movement from the West Bank settlement of Itamar. He has been acquitted of charges of assaulting an Israeli Arab and a left-wing activist, and residents of the Arab village of Yanun accuse him of harassing villagers. But Ran's right-wing activities are not his only claim to fame: He is also one of the largest suppliers of organic eggs in the country.

Continue reading "Good eggs from the West Bank" »

Posted by MEEF at 06:11 PM | Permalink

Haaretz

July 31, 2007

By Zafrir Rinat

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has asked to put off the removal of the fish cages from the Eilat Gulf by two years, despite a cabinet decision two years ago stating that they must go within three years.

Continue reading "Ministry blasts delays in removing Eilat fish farms" »

Posted by MEEF at 06:47 AM | Permalink

Haaretz

August 1, 2007

By Eli Ashkenazi

Interest in Lake Kinneret goes deeper and wider than its water level or its recreational aspects, as seen by Monday's seminar marking the establishment of the Authority for the Conservation of Lake Kinneret.

Continue reading "New authority seeks to conserve soil in Kinneret basin" »

Posted by MEEF at 06:39 AM | Permalink

Peres Center For Peace

In June 2007, within the framework of the "Olives – The Symbol of Peace" project, which is a sub-project of the Peres Center's "Integrated Crop Management" program, the Peres Center, together with the General Council of Marseilles, France, held a 3-day Israeli-Palestinian-French workshop which focused on the improvement of olive oil quality and marketing techniques.

Continue reading "Olive Oil Workshop in Provence, June 2007" »

Posted by MEEF at 02:29 PM | Permalink

Al Jazeera (English)

July 15, 2007

By Farid Barsoum in the Nile Delta, Egypt

Some Egyptians have to walk
many kilometres to get clean water
A large puddle provides the only drinking water for many residents of Brulus on the Nile Delta. The water is putrid.

Continue reading "Egypt faces water crisis" »

Posted by MEEF at 01:23 PM | Permalink

Jordan Times

Jul. 18, 2007

Hana Namrouqa

AMMAN -- The Ministry of Environment on Tuesday announced plans to establish a treatment plant for medical and hazardous waste in the Zarqa area.

The plan was announced during a workshop to discuss the ministry's 2007-2009 strategic plan.

Continue reading "Gov't to establish waste treatment plant in Zarqa" »

Posted by MEEF at 01:16 PM | Permalink

Jordan Times

July 16, 2007

By BEN WINOGRAD, Associated Press Writer

SHEIK HUSSEIN VILLAGE Jordan

For years, Ibrahim Alayyan watched in frustration as rats ravaged the date crop at his lush family farm.

Having no luck with pesticides, the retired Jordanian heart surgeon was only too eager to try a pest control agent widely used in fields just across the Jordan River in Israel owls.

Continue reading "In Middle East, the common barn owl, enemy to rodents, unites Israeli, Jordanian farmers" »

Posted by MEEF at 07:45 AM | Permalink

Israel 21c

July 01, 2007

DEMOCRACY

By Ilana Teitelbaum

From the moment we wake up in the morning and open a box of cereal to the hours we spend at work among printers, faxes, and copying machines, to times spent relaxing in the evening with a magazine or mass market paperback, we are constantly surrounded by paper.

Continue reading "Israeli discovery paves way for cost-efficient wood alternative" »

Posted by MEEF at 01:04 PM | Permalink

Jordan Times

Jul. 6, 2007

BYLINE: Mohammad Ghazal and Hana Namrouqa

AMMAN -- The Ministry of Environment has called on Jordan Valley farmers to stop using untreated organic fertilisers, which attract domestic flies, a nuisance for picnickers and harmful to the environment.

Continue reading "Environment officials warn against use of untreated organic fertilisers" »

Posted by MEEF at 12:14 PM | Permalink

The Jerusalem Post

Jul. 9, 2007

MATTHEW KRIEGER

Calling his new program "agriculture in service of the environment," Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon on Sunday unveiled his ministry's plan to reward those farmers who demonstrate "eco-friendly" farming practices.

Continue reading "'Green-farmers' to reap windfall" »

Posted by MEEF at 12:12 PM | Permalink

Israel 21c

July 08, 2007

DEMOCRACY

By Michelle Levine

They may come from worlds apart, but leading political and environmental figures from Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority have found a common theme to bring them together - the Great Rift Valley.

The Great Rift Valley is a series of geological rifts stretching 4,000 miles, from southern Turkey to Zimbabwe, running through Syria and Lebanon, along the Jordan River, the Dead Sea, the Gulf of Eilat and the Red Sea until Kenya, at which point it splits into two branches. Five hundred million birds use the valley route to migrate twice a year from Europe to Asia.

Continue reading "Environmental concerns bring Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians together" »

Posted by MEEF at 11:48 AM | Permalink

Haaretz

June 26, 2007

By Eli Ashekenazi

In a few years, hikers at the Hula Lake marsh will be able to sample locally produced buffalo mozzarella. The birth of the first water buffalo calf at the marsh yesterday was a significant milestone in efforts to increase the existing herd and attract new visitors to the site. Effi Naim, director of the Jewish National Fund project in the Hula marsh says, "We decided to bring buffalos to the site three years ago as part of the concept of reconstructing life at the lake before it was drained."

Continue reading "Buffalo mozzarella, made in Israel" »

Posted by MEEF at 03:44 PM | Permalink

Jordan Times

Listing Jordan River among the top most endangered cultural heritage sites
in the world comes as no surprise.

The Friends of the Earth Middle East Society and the World Monument Fund,
the renowned international watchdog of cultural heritages worldwide, have
sounded the alarm about the inevitable demise of the river and showed what
protecting it from becoming altogether extinct entails.

Continue reading "Clean waters" »

Posted by MEEF at 04:31 AM | Permalink

Jordan Times

June 18, 2007

Hana Namrouqa

AMMAN -- Jordan's 1 per cent of green cover is expected to disappear in the coming few years, unless serious measures are taken, the Jordanian Society for Desertification Control and Badia Development (JSDCBD) warned on Sunday.

"The Kingdom's forests are decreasing as a result of illegal logging and random grazing of livestock by ranchers. People are uprooting trees for constructing investment projects and houses, instead of planting trees," JSDCBD President Abdul Latif Arabiyat told The Jordan Times yesterday.

Continue reading "Jordan's forest areas threatened by desertification, logging" »

Posted by MEEF at 04:22 PM | Permalink

Jordan Times

Jun. 18, 2007

Paul Tate

AMMAN -- A lack of cooperation and political will among regional states is hampering efforts to address the worsening ecological condition of the Jordan River, environmentalists said on Sunday.

According to Friends of the Earth Middle East, a regional environmental organisation of Israelis, Jordanians and Palestinians, poor regional water management has led to the complete demise of one of the world's most famous rivers.

Continue reading "Jordan River among world's 100 most endangered sites" »

Posted by MEEF at 04:10 PM | Permalink

Jordan Times

June 7, 2007

By Hana Namrouqa

AMMAN -- Demographic changes and migrations have created an imbalance between available water resources and demand, Minister of Water and Irrigation Thafer Alem said on Wednesday.

In his remarks at the opening session of a regional forum on local water governance entitled "Water is everybody's business," Alem said per capita water supply in 1943 totalled 3,400 million cubic metres annually, but following demographic changes as a result of regional wars and crises, an individual's share of water is now 146 cubic metres.

Continue reading "Pilot water-harvesting techniques to be adopted" »

Posted by MEEF at 01:10 PM | Permalink

Haaretz

May 27, 2007

Sources: Management preferred its offer to Netafim's over concern about their positions
By Amiram Cohen

The Indian agriculture conglomerate Jain Irrigation Systems is buying 50% of Israel's Na'an Dan Irrigation at a company valuation of NIS 140 million.

The two firms will be entering a memorandum of understanding on the transaction next week.

Continue reading "Jain Irrigation of India buying 50% of Na'an Dan" »

Posted by MEEF at 11:59 AM | Permalink

Haaretz

February 15, 2007

By Ora Coren and Amiram Cohen
The Netafim irrigation systems company means to start manufacturing via a
chain of plants outside Israel.

Continue reading "Netafim opening irrigation systems plant in Mexico" »

Posted by MEEF at 05:39 AM | Permalink

Haaretz

Last Update February 25, 2007

By Ofri Ilani

The wind ruffles the leaves of the date sapling in its planter, and Dr. Elaine Soloway quickly shields it. "There's only one plant like this in the world, and I'm still worried about it," she says. Methuselah - that is the sapling's name - is indeed unique. In 2005, Soloway, from Kibbutz Ketura in the Arava, germinated it from a 2,000-year-old date seed found at Masada.

Continue reading "2,000-year-old date seed grows in the Arava" »

Posted by MEEF at 08:20 AM | Permalink