Los Angeles Times
August 4, 2007
SCIENCE FILE
The chemicals used in cleanup efforts harm reefs more than the oil itself does, researchers say.
By Alison Williams
Times Staff Writer
Chemicals frequently used to clean up oil spills in marine environments turn out to be more toxic to coral reefs than the oil itself, researchers said this week.
Continue reading "Oil spill remedies toxic to coral, study finds" »
The Jerusalem Post
Aug. 1, 2007
Judy Siegel-Itzkovich
A group of Israeli bee experts has gone to the US to study the reasons for the mysterious reduction in that country's bee population, which threaten to affect Israeli bees as well.
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" »
Haaretz
By Michael J. Caduto
News from the Middle East usually describes conflicts and their root causes in
politics, religious fundamentalism and the struggle between Israelis and
Palestinians for a homeland. Threats to peace and security are indeed a
backdrop for daily existence, but that is only part of the story.
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" »
Haaretz
July 10, 2007
By Eli Ashkenazi
Five eagles were set free from the Carmel wildlife reserve yesterday, including among them Mendelssohn, the first eagle chick to hatch in the reserve after 53 years.
Continue reading "Five eagles answer the call of the wild" »
Haaretz
July 25, 2007
By Eli Ashkenazi
A tiny wasp that has ravaged eucalyptus groves in the Mediterranean Basin, Africa and the Far East, and which arrived in Israel a few years ago, has proven anew that no organism is eternally dominant. Israeli researchers have found a predator one millimeter in length called Closterocerus, which thwarts the wasp's advance.
Continue reading "Israelis discover bug that saves eucalyptus groves" »
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" »
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.
Jordan Times
June 13, 2007
Feynan Eco-lodge gets commendation as Best Overseas Tourism Project
The lodge at Wadi Feynan sits deep in the mountains of Jordan’s southern Rift Valley (Photo courtesy of the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature)
By Linda Hindi
AMMAN — As Jordan advances in the global ecotourism sector, the Feynan Eco-lodge in the Dana Reserve has received an international commendation under the title “Best Overseas Tourism Project”.
Haaretz
July 4, 2007
By Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondent
Dozens of turtles were moved to a new home Tuesday, the recently built sewage treatment facility of the Bnei Shimon regional council in the Negev.
Continue reading "Dozens of turtles given new life in new mud" »
Haaretz
July 3, 2007
By Zafrir Rinat, Haaretz Correspondent
A new highway, aimed at substantially alleviating traffic congestion in the entrances to and exits from Jerusalem, will not open until repairs are made to environmental and landscape damages caused by the paving of the road.
The Jerusalem District Court on Monday received a petition, filed by the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, seeking to prevent the highway from being opened.
Continue reading "J'lem highway opening delayed due to environmental damage" »
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" »
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.
Middle East Times
June 28, 2007
AFP
SAN FRANCISCO-- Humans have domesticated the planet to such a degree that few untouched spots remain, researchers report in a review article published in the journal Science.
Earth is so tamed that conservationism should shift focus from protecting nature from humans to better understanding and managing a domesticated world, the authors said.
Continue reading "Wilderness almost non-existent on planet Earth: study" »
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."
Jordan Times
June 8, 2007
By Dalya Dajani, Jordan Times, Amman
AQABA -- Beneath the pristine waters of this Red Sea resort, a concrete paradise is giving Mother Nature and the local fishing community a helping hand.
Emerging from a featureless sandy bed in the northernmost tip of the Aqaba coast, an artificial reef has been steadily thriving over the past two years as a safe haven for the fragile marine species of this ecosystem.
Continue reading "Aqaba's artificial reef safe haven to fragile marine species" »
The Jerusalem Post
Jun. 11, 2007
Etgar Lefkovits
Motorists to Jerusalem awaiting the much-touted opening of a major city road which is meant to alleviate the congestion at the entrance to the capital need to put brakes on their expectations of imminent traffic relief.
A Jerusalem court will hold another hearing later this month over the opening of the road, which has been held up by the court partly as a result of environmental concerns, officials said.
Continue reading "No light at end of tunnel for new Jerusalem road" »
The Jerusalem Post
May. 29, 2007
Judy Siegel-Itzkovich
Although the wild leopard that barged into the home of a sleeping Sde Boker family on Monday is slowly recovering, he is quite old, and suffers from a stiff spine and joints, as well as infertility, according to a veterinarian who treated him at the Hebrew University Veterinary Teaching Hospital in Beit Dagan.
Continue reading "Elderly wild leopard to 'retire' at Hai Bar animal reserve" »
YNET
May 28, 2007
Leopard chases cat into sleeping couple's bedroom, husband awakes, catches leopard with bare hands, saving his beloved cat
Anat Bereshovsky
A Negev resident woke up early Monday morning to find a leopard in his bedroom.
Continue reading "Man catches leopard in bedroom with bare hands" »
Haaretz
May 28, 2007
By Zafrir Rinat, Haaretz Correspondent
Negev resident Arthur Dimosh trapped a Leopard Sunday night after the feline had crept into his bedroom in Sde Boker while chasing a cat.
Dimosh awoke from the barking of his dog, to find himself face to face with a leopard. He immediately leapt on the animal, grabbed him by the neck and asked his wife to call the Nature and Parks Authority (NPA).
Continue reading "Negev resident traps leopard who crept into his home" »
Jordan Times
May 27, 2007
WADI RUM (JT) — Representatives from seven Arab countries convened in Wadi Rum last week to look into the reintroduction of the Arabian Oryx into countries of the Arabian Peninsula, which are considered its original habitat.
During the two-day meeting, Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA) Chief Commissioner Nader Dahabi briefed members of the coordination committee entrusted with the preservation of the endangered animal on Jordan’s experience, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) established the country’s first nature reserve of Shaumari in 1975, mainly to reintroduce species that had been extinct, including the Arabian Oryx, one of the most endangered animals in the world.
Haaretz
March 2, 2007
By Eli Ashkenazi
Many countries have a national flower, bird or animal, and some places have certain districts that glory in their own representative plants or animals. Choosing a national animal is part of the culture of nature-loving nations and a tool to generate local identification. It is also a way to raise the issue of environmentalism and animal protection.
Continue reading "Looking for a national bird - does the bulbul fit the bill?" »
Haaretz
March 1, 2007
By Jonathan Lis
Last Monday morning, a team at the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo dropped in on a compound housing Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx - known in Hebrew as Reem halavan, the white oryx). They quickly chose two 2-year-old female oryx, and tranquilized them with a dart gun. The staff tagged them with transmitters and fitted plastic pipes over the animals' long horns to protect the workers. After receiving inoculations, the oryx were put into special crates, and started heading toward freedom.
Haaretz
March 7, 2007
By Zafrir Rinat
The coastal plain used to be full of winter ponds that would fill with rainwater and dry up in the summer. After years of construction and agricultural use, most have disappeared, and only three large winter ponds remain in Israel.
One is in western Herzliya, and the municipality is seeking to build a park in its place. Part of the area does indeed suffer from neglect and disuse, but a careful survey found it is a hidden trove of flora and fauna that may disappear along with the pond.
The Daily Star
March 02, 2007
By Maher Zeineddine
Daily Star correspondent
CHOUF: Administrators of the Chouf Cedars Nature Reserve have struck a deal with local goatherds in an effort to protect the area's vegetation. Grazing will now be conducted outside the reserve and according to strict schedules and in specific regions, in an attempt to prevent deforestation and limit notorious and all-too-frequent brush fires.
Continue reading "Chouf Cedars Reserve teams up with goats and their masters to protect greenery" »
Haaretz
February 22, 2007
By Zafrir Rinat
A new report released yesterday by Peace Now says that several West Bank settlements have annexed land from nature reserves for construction purposes.
The group's claim is based on a comparison of aerial photographs of settlements and outposts and nature reserve maps.
Continue reading "Peace Now: W. Bank settlements annexed nature reserve land" »
Ministry of Tourism – Jericho & AL-GOUR District
Committee for the Promotion of Tourism in the Governorate of Jericho
&
Palestine Wildlife Society
Birdlife International
The First
Jericho-The Botanic Garden
Jericho Wildlife Monitoring Station
March 15-18/2007
We are glad "Palestine Wildlife Society and Committee for the Promotion of Tourism in the Governorate of Jericho to inform you that we are organizing the first edition of the Jericho Bird watching and Nature Tourism Fair. The Fair will take place between March 15-18 2007 at the:
Botanic Garden
"Jericho Wildlife Monitoring Station"
http://www.wildlife-pal.org/portal/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=14
This will enable people to look onto the Migration Root of the Jordan Valley since this site it is a BOTTLE NECK for the global and some of the Resident & endemic Bird Species during that days...
There are some interesting activities for all of the people and the visitors such as..
Planting Tree in the garden on your name.
Bird watching "early in the morning or after noon"...
Bird Ringing "Banding" during the day time "morning and afternoon
Visiting the Archeology sites in Jericho and its area
Hiking from St. George Monastery "Wadi Quilt top Jericho on Friday the 16 /3 and Sunday the 18/3…….
And including an over night staying at the MOON HOSTEL for who wish to stay over night with us…>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>The Cost:
One day & Full board for over night with transportation within Jericho visit 40$.
During the day:20$
► Any other donations are acceptable to support
PWLS Nature Conservation activities.
www.wildlife-pal.org http://www.wildlife-pal.org/portal/index.php
For more information & registration, please contact:
Mr. Imad Atrash 0599258726 or PWLS office: 02-2774373: email:pwls@wildlife-pal.org
By Zafrir Rinat
Last update - 02:12 22/01/2007
David Litvinoff, the head of the Tamar Regional Council, has lived
most of his life at Kibbutz Ein Gedi, near the Dead Sea. But he made
his first visit to neighboring Jordan only last week. His main reasons
for finally taking the trip were the houseflies that plague residents
on both sides of the Dead Sea, and the realization that the
ever-shrinking sea is also a common problem.
Litvinoff and a delegation of regional council heads from the area met
in the Jordanian city of Safi with officials of the Jordan Valley
Authority and district governors. He and the head of the Jordan River
district, Ghaleb al-Shamaila, signed a memorandum of understanding to
work together against the flies and to establish a border crossing for
merchandise and workers on the Dead Sea's southern shore. They also
pledged to work to establish a regional peace park south of the Dead
Sea and to bring public pressure to bear on the issue of the Dead
Sea's desiccation.
The visit to Jordan was organized by the joint Israeli, Jordanian and
Palestinian Friends of the Earth-Middle East (FoEME). "It is a rare
event in which the representatives of so many Jordanian bodies meet
with Israelis, as political pressure usually prevents such meetings,"
FoEME's Israeli director, Gidon Bromberg, said. He stated that the
shared nature of the issues on the local level had created the level
of trust needed to reach the understandings.
"We've tried everything against the flies," Litvinoff said. "We
brought in specialists and used every kind of pesticide. The flies
continue to come from the Jordanian side. Some months, you can't even
sit outside."
The Israeli delegation came face to face with the source of the
problem in the fields near Safi: a fertilizer that attracts the winged
pests. "People here are poor, and they don't have money to buy
suitable fertilizers," said Dr. Farouk Arslan, a Jordanian ecologist
accompanying the group.
"This fertilizer gets wet and attracts the female flies, and that's
how the next generation develops," explained Shlomo Abadi, a pesticide
expert advising both sides.
The participants resolved to conduct a study on various methods of
decreasing the legions of flies. Bromberg and his Jordanian
counterpart, Munqeth Mehyar, met last week in Amman with the U.S.
ambassador to seek his help in establishing a compost facility that
will not attract flies.
The Jordanian side of the Dead Sea is in many respects a mirror image
of the Israeli side, complete with potash works and their evaporation
pools and a large number of hotels. The outstanding difference is that
the population on the Jordanian side is much larger, and poorer, than
on the Israeli side.
The Jordanians led their Israeli guests through a banana plantation in
which a huge sinkhole had opened, similar to the hundreds of such
holes on the Israeli side. The holes, which open without warning, are
created due to the drop in the level of the Dead Sea, which allows
fresh water to penetrate through salt layers beneath the surface,
dissolving them and causing the surface to collapse.
Ahmed Bukhri, a Jor dan Valley Authority engineer, said that there are
about 50 sinkholes in Jordanian fields. "We tried to block some of
them, but they reappear," he noted. As opposed to Kibbutz Ein Gedi,
which has stopped cultivation in the fields where the sinkholes
appeared, the Jordanian farmers appear to have no choice and continue
to work their fields, although there are sinkholes all around.
The shrinkage of the Dead Sea requires intervention at a higher level
than mayors on both sides, but the mayors are trying to raise
international awareness of the importance of preserving the area. At
their meeting, both sides agreed to continue their efforts to persuade
the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) to declare the Dead Sea basin a World Heritage Site.
Israel21c
Israelis raise coral out of the blue
By Karin Kloosterman January 21, 2007
Israeli scientist win US award for ecological research
While other criminal lawyers are spending their afternoons preparing court
cases, Israeli attorney Ofer Almalam is taking off his tie and heading over to
an unusual aquatic farm to dote on some special clients.
In a secret location not far from the city of Haifa, Almalam and his partner
Alon Efergan, a former engineer, are working around the clock raising coral for
their new company - Advanced Coral Propagating Technology (ACP Tech).
The coral they produce - about 8,000 pieces of 6 cm. coral a year - is living
proof that coral can be cultivated in captivity and in a closed system. It is
the first large-scale operation of its kind in the world where coral are reared
with no connection to nutrients in the sea.
The zoological research done by the unlikely pairing of a lawyer and an
engineer, they hope, may one day save the world's coral reefs from extinction -
or at least make it to the pages of National Geographic.
Pet stores and reef keepers around the world are taking notice of ACP Tech,
which has been having a hard time meeting the demand for their colourful sea
creatures. Distributed by Israeli food and agriculture giant Agrexco, major pet
store distributors in the US such as Segrest Farms in Miami and Merit Import are
placing orders faster than they can be delivered. The wholesale cost - about $15
apiece.
Like the secret location of the tanks, the precise methodologies used in raising
the finicky coral are under wraps until the company acquires patents. What they
can say is that it has taken them late nights of hard work, a whole lot of
intuition, and a special combination of technologies that give the coral the
specific conditions needed to grow.
Coral reefs in the sea serve as one of the world's most important marine
ecosystems. The exoskeletons of the small animals are home to thousands of
other aquatic plants and animals. Coral are necessary for nutrient cycling in
the sea; they are important for tourism in island economies, used in medical
studies for skin grafts and could be sources of new medicines.
But coral are sensitive to the smallest fluctuations in pH, chemical mixtures
and temperature. Global warming, fish farming, pollution and a whole host of
man-made activities are proving to be disastrous to their survival. Some
scientists believe that one-third of all coral in the sea has already died.
This year, reports CNN and New Scientist, has seen record amounts of coral
die-off.
"I feel that we are heading into a period where the coral will become extinct,"
Almalam told ISRAEL21c. "They have existed for 500 million years and have
passed a few extinctions. But we are going into an era that may have
immeasurable consequences for their survival."
"And hard corals, like the ones we are growing, are the most sensitive kind,"
says Almalam. "They need special conditions to live and require components in
the water present in a narrow range that includes such chemicals like calcium
and strontium."
Feeding his coral what he jokingly terms a "body-builder's" diet, Almalam helps
the coral grow twenty times faster than they would if they were growing
naturally in the sea. Those grown on his farm are more colorful than the native
sea varieties; they also adapt better to aquarium life.
The way ACP Tech packs and ships its coral, in special brine, also ensures a
near one-hundred-percent survival rate for coral that have to brave the long
journey from Israel to the United States.
Although environmentalists try to sway people from stealing coral in the sea,
the marine animals remain a hot commodity for hobbyists looking to add them to
exotic home aquariums.
By propagating and selling coral, Almalam says, ACP Tech is helping to offset
illegal poaching of coral. At any rate, he adds, poached coral has a low chance
of survival once someone removes it from the sea.
Much of what ACP Tech does is under wraps until the company receives patents on
their technologies and methodologies. What they can divulge is the fact that
the coral is propagated from smaller pieces of the substance through a process
known as fragmentation; the pieces are glued to a cube of concrete and then
placed in an aquarium environment that contains minerals and elements in the
"perfect" combination that coral love.
And "love" is the word Efergan uses when describing the most important
ingredient in the rearing process. "I give them the best that I can- like the
love I give to my children," he says. "I also give them the highest quality
food. They speak with me. I can feel how they feel."
"The environmental aspect is also important for me and I live the principles I
believe," added Efergan, a vegetarian who doesn't eat fish.
After studying mechanical engineering at Tel Aviv University, Efergen decided to
try his luck in the pet store business. It was then, about five years ago when
Almalam took an interest in aquariums, the two met.
Within three months of raising lionfish, Almalam had moved on to soft coral,
hard coral and then a 600 liter aquarium that found a home in his living room.
Besides buying materials and equipment from Efergan, Almalam was ordering
specialty supplies from the US and the UK.
Through their mutual love of coral and environmentalism, Almalam and Efergan
forged a bond like brotherhood, they say.
Today the aquariums are too large for the house and have been moved to a small
village outside the coastal city of Haifa.
Almalam's father Avraham Almalam an engineer with a background in agriculture
also deserves credit for ACP Tech's success. "Of course," says Almalam's
father, it was a dream of his and his wife's that their son would grow up and
become a lawyer. But it was no surprise that he would end up dedicating the
better part of his day to growing coral.
"Ofer always cared about animals and has since he was a young boy. He raised
snakes, dogs, butterflies and many kinds of varieties of mice at our home. He
grew up knowing how to be close to animals," says his father. "Developing a
closed system of raising coral was not a strange thing for my son to do. And it
is such an important thing for the world."
ACP Tech could one day - if the right investor comes along, they say- supply
coral to every corner of the world. Already, they have started supplying coral
to reef-keepers used for transplanting them in the natural environment in
efforts to keep reefs alive.
"Our production could be higher at the moment," says Almalam. "We just don't
have the system big enough to satisfy the demand."
Karin Kloosterman is a freelance reporter living in Israel.
http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?enDispWho=Articles%5El1531&enPage=BlankPage&enDisplay=view&enDispWhat=object&enVersion=0&enZone=Democracy&
Sun, 21 Jan 2007 11:23:32 -0600
Daily Star staff
Thursday, January 18, 2007
SIDON: Fishermen in the Southern coastal city of Tyre held a protest on
Wednesday in objection to other fisherman's use of dynamite to catch fish, an
illegal practice. Speaking at a news conference in Tyre, Khalil Taha, the head
of the local fisherman's syndicate, hailed the behavior of fishermen who refuse
to break the law by fishing with explosives but instead use "more traditional,
albeit time-consuming, methods" that preserve the environment and marine fauna.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb
Taha called on the government and environmental associations to put an end to
dynamite fishing, "which not only harms the fish, but the fishermen too."
Dynamite is frequently used by fishermen at night, when sticks of the explosives
sometimes miss their targets and end up landing in the boats of other fishermen.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=78716
Indigenous technique has long history of involving communities in protecting
their own environment
By Maria Abi-Habib
Daily Star staff
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
BEIRUT: Nature conservation in Lebanon now has a new face with the revival of
the hima, a 1,000-year-old method of sustainable development. The Society for
the Protection of Nature in Lebanon (SPNL) is building partnerships with
villages to create himas - areas in which wildlife and natural resources are
protected from exploitation and used in a responsible manner.
"The idea behind himas is the hima versus the nature reserve. Himas are
community-based conservation," says SPNL general director Assad Serhal. "Nature
reserves ... in the Middle East are a translation of the Western system to
conserve biodiversity. The hima is from our region and has evolved over time to
include sustainability to allow us to use nature for our survival, whereas in
nature reserves you can't even step into the area."
Himas give back to the community by generating income with ecotourism activities
such as hiking. Traditional businesses will also be revived, including basket
weaving and bed and breakfasts.
"The human angle here is very important," says Serhal. "We can't only be
romantic about nature, [we also need to be] practical. For the local people
conservation is not enough; they want to see the profits and benefits. You have
to be realistic."
Himas were in use over 1,000 years ago in the Middle East, serving as communal
plots of land for sustainable use of wildlife and vegetation. The first modern
hima in Lebanon was created from a bird sanctuary in 2004, on land considered
an important bird area by Bird Life International (BLI).
Initially attempting to figure out how best to preserve the bird sanctuary, SPNL
decided himas were preferable to nature reserves across the country.
"We work for the birds and also for the people through the himas at the same
time," says Ibrahim al-Khader, head of BLI's Middle East division. "People may
be the problem, but they are also the solution."
Two land himas have already been created in Lebanon, the first in Ibl as-Saqi in
Marjayoun and the other in Kfar Zabad, in the Bekaa. A marine hima is also under
construction off the coast of Qleileh, outside Tyre.
In an attempt to raise awareness of the himas' benefits, the SPNL announced
Tuesday that it has published the first Arabic translation of Richard Porter's
"Field Guide to the Birds of the Middle East."
Porter is a UK-based ornithologist and conservation expert. The book was first
published in English in 1996 and is the only field guide to the region's birds.
"Water conservation and the threat to wetlands from draining marshes are very
dangerous for Middle Eastern birds, but so are hunting and cutting down trees,"
Porter says. "The solution to this is to make people understand their
environment and then they'll see the threats it faces and want to help.
Hopefully this book will help their understanding."
"We train the villagers and provide them with capacity building and teach them
how to manage the hima in a sustainable way," says Khader. "You offer them
alternatives for income like ecotourism, a bed and breakfast and selling local
goods. At the same time you're teaching them about the benefits their land
offers - and we're not taking their land away from them" as opposed to
government-controlled nature reserves.
Serhal believes that people will continue to exploit natural resources as long
as they are marginalized from the process of conservation.
"If you don't involve the community, in times of hardship they'll scale the
fences of a ... reserve and exploit its resources," he says. "In a hima the
community owns everything - the medicinal and edible plants, water, birds or
fish - which we teach them to manage."
Lebanon will host a regional hima workshop in March.
"There used to be a hima in every village," says Serhal. "We only destroyed this
in the last 30-40 years, [isolating] from nature, and we've lost touch with
reality."
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=78650
Jordan Times
AMMAN (IRIN) — Pollution, overfishing and the destruction of marine habitat are
driving commercial fisheries in the port city of Aqaba, 250km south of Amman,
to the brink of collapse, according to environmentalists and fishermen.
“Immediate action must be taken to stop the ongoing depletion of fish stocks and
damage to the ecosystem,” said Fadi Sharaiha of the Royal Marine Conservation
Society of Jordan.
Halting the destruction of coastal habitats, taking steps to control and reduce
pollution, and preventing the use of dynamite in fishing would help to restore
productivity in the area, he said.
“In a few years’ time, there will be no fish to catch in Aqaba Port,” said
Sharaiha, who is urging authorities to implement strict measures against
vessels that dump garbage and toxic waste in the sea.
Fears are growing that the fishing community may lose its livelihood, which
would have profound social consequences with resulting high unemployment.
For the past few months, tens of fishermen have stopped casting their nets into
the nearly empty waters. Out of the 147 fishermen authorised to venture into
the gulf, more than 80 have permanently anchored their boats on the shores.
Abdul Rahman Mahmoud, 44, who has been fishing since he was 12 years old, has
already started looking for a new job.
“Everyday we hear about laws and plans to protect the sea. We need deeds not
words,” Mahmoud said.
Ever-increasing marine traffic in the port and building construction onshore has
compounded the fishermen’s problems.
The government turned Aqaba into a special economic zone nearly five years ago
in a bid to attract foreign investment and transform the area into a commercial
hub.
Hundreds of millions of dollars were pumped into real estate projects on the
seafront, while marine traffic nearly tripled.
“We cannot have it all. We either make Aqaba a free trade zone, bustling with
marine traffic, or [we make it] a tourism destination,” Mahmoud said.
As a result of its semi enclosed form, the Gulf of Aqaba is susceptible to
marine pollution and ecosystem degradation.
Officials from the Ministry of Environment said they were aware of the problem
but admitted their hands were tied.
“We cannot create hurdles in front of investment projects,” Isa Shboul,
spokesman for the Ministry of Environment, said.
Recently, Parliament endorsed an environment law to protect the country’s
fragile ecosystem, which set penalties that include one year in prison and
hefty fines.
The government also proposed to fishermen to ply their trade in international
waters off the coast of Yemen, but the fishermen were not interested.
Abu Ali, 55, said the long journey was not feasible. “Our boats are too small to
handle the expenses of a long fishing journey that lasts for weeks,” said Ali.
“This is our water, we must be able to fish here, not hundreds of miles away.”
(From: Stuart Schoenfeld)
Haaretz
By Eitan Bekerman
The large green Isuzu jeep climbs and descends the hills, leaving a trail of
dust behind it, while the MIRS telephone receives and sends fragmented calls.
In the back part of the vehicle are barred cages suitable for alligators and
snakes. Aryeh Keller - small, solid, somewhat potbellied since he stopped
smoking, his face scorched from the summer heat - confidently grabs the
steering wheel while exchanging coarse but friendly curses with his
interlocutors, who are nature preservation colleagues or friends from the
police, as he continues to speed along toward his goal: rescuing baby finches.
Why do the bad guys, the ones whom the "sheriff" is after, go after finches, of
all birds? Because of the "mules." Anyone unfamiliar with the mule is missing
something. Keller (whose first name means "lion" in English) explains: "A mule
in this context is a cross between a finch and a canary - a bird that is a
wonderful singer and has beautiful colors as well. There's a lot of demand for
these birds, they're worth a lot, and there are people whose work is to trap
the finch nestlings in order to breed mules."
This is an entire industry. The trappers of baby finches - henceforth "the
collectors" - do their work in a particularly wicked way, which we'll get to
soon. The trapped birds are transferred to breeders, who keep and mate them in
special warehouses in various parts of the country. From there the mules are
sent to retailers or to private customers. The more beautiful the mule, and the
more classical its song, the more expensive it is. An especially fine mule can
be sold for thousands of shekels. Worthy of mention is the mule Abu Khalil, a
native of Hebron, who sang like no other mule ever, and whose worth was
estimated at tens of thousands of shekels.
Keller says that the number of baby finches that are caught is estimated in the
hundreds of thousands. "Recently," he explains, "this has become an unusually
widespread phenomenon, in Israel and in the territories. Don't forget that many
of them die on the way. In general, there is a bottomless market for caged
birds, and mules are the biggest hit now. So you need finches, and everywhere
in Israel there are collectors who hunt them. They are actually emptying the
country of this beautiful, very Israeli bird."
How does one catch such a large number of finches? There are ways. "During the
incubation season the finches gather near water sources. When the nestlings
hatch and are only starting to learn to fly, people place traps there. The
collectors put an adult finch next to the water source tied to a stick, they
bind it with a wing harness, and that is the bait. On both sides of the stick
they attach two sheets of plastic and a net, 3 x 2 meters, which are attached
to a rope, and they wait for the right moment."
The innocent nestlings, who have just begun learning to fly, come to drink water
and get into trouble. "They are attracted to the adult finch," explains Keller,
"try to reach it, and then with one pull of the rope the plastic sheets fold,
and dozens of baby birds are trapped inside the net. This is repeated 30 or 40
times, sometimes more. No method is unacceptable to the collectors. Sometimes
when the female is still sitting on the eggs, and goes down for a moment to
drink water, or when she sees a male and flies to him, they trap them, too.
Everything for money."
It's not easy an easy life for 54-year-old Keller, who is national supervisor of
the Israel Nature and Parks Protection Authority (INPPA), and is responsible for
preventing the import and trade of wildlife. His difficult goal is to get to
collectors all over the country, so he concentrates on finding the warehouses
of the finches and mules. How? Intelligence. Over the years he has developed a
very broad network of connections.
"Now, for example," he says, before dialing a phone number on his cell phone,
"I'm going to check the address of one guy, Yitzhak something, in Jaffa, with
the police. Often the wholesalers with the warehouses are criminals who are
familiar to the police from other areas."
The conversation is short, full of security codes, and at the end Keller
explains: "The nice guy I spoke to now is the intelligence coordinator of the
Jaffa police. He's checking for me whether the target happens to be a police
source, which means we have to be more careful; he's finding out for me of
course whether there really is such a person at that address, he completes the
investigations so we won't end up with a farce, so there'll be successes."
Intelligence network
Wherever Keller goes, he remembers the law, which is worded as follows: "No one
can trade in a wild animal, or in part of it, or in its offspring, in Israel or
abroad. And the law defines, of course, which animals are wild, in accordance
with the Washington Convention (on International Trade in Endangered Species of
Wild Fauna and Flora), to which Israel has been a signatory since 1984, to our
satisfaction."
For the purpose of his battle against illegal trade, Keller has established his
own national intelligence network, which is semi-clandestine and includes
people in the field, ordinary citizens, plus the spearhead: the Israel Police.
"Police units, elite units, such as the Tel Aviv area unit, for example - I
have personal ties there. Let's say they go on a search at the home of a target
who is known as a thief, they've finished searching for the stolen property and
the heroin and all that, have already hit on him. Then they look for animals
for me. Let's say they find a snake or a monkey, immediately they'll say
'Aryeh, come.' I'm on call for them at all hours of the day and night, seven
days a week."
So what will sheriff Keller do with the snake that was found in the criminal's
home? Here we come to another aspect of his job: his connections with every zoo
and petting zoo around the country, which were created during his dozens of
years as a supervisor for the INPPA. After all, someone has to protect and care
for the animals that he saves, and therefore, while driving, he conducts the
following conversation with one of the caretakers at the Nahariya zoo:
Keller: "I have two water snakes for you, from Thailand."
Caretaker: "What are water snakes from Thailand?"
Keller: "It's a type of nonpoisonous snake from Thailand."
Caretaker: "Does it stink?"
Keller: "No, it doesn't stink. It's very good for display."
Caretaker: "Great, so I probably need a wet display, with a pool."
Keller: "Yes, your small pool. And I'm also bringing two young alligators."
Caretaker: "What do you mean by young?"
Keller: "Young means half a year, something like that."
Caretaker: "How long?"
Keller: "About 30 centimeters. They're for display, miss."
Caretaker: "Of course for display - why, did you think I was taking them home?"
Keller: "It's best if you come to my home in Karkur, to take them."
Caretaker: "Oh, okay, okay, so you need us to come to you?"
Keller: "I'm in the Rosh Ha'ayin area now, if you come to me in Karkur in two
hours you'll get both coffee and all the animals."
Caretaker: "Okay, let me just speak to Yigal, he's a little busy, we'll see if
he ..."
Keller: "Dear, for your information, the Haifa zoo wants to come to me now."
Caretaker: "No problem, no problem, we'll come. I'll speak to Yigal.
Keller: "Good. 'Bye, sweetheart."
Caretaker: "Yalla, 'bye."
That evening two Siamese water snakes and two young alligators joined the
display at the Nahariya zoo.
Legendary trapper
Aryeh Keller is a great expert on reptiles, after years of being the assistant
of the legendary Heinrich Mendelssohn, the founder of the zoological garden at
Tel Aviv University.
"I dealt with reptiles all my life, from age zero, but when I came to Prof.
Mendelssohn, I was still a retarded child in the field," he says in his
somewhat brusque style. "Mendelssohn provided the scientific foundation, thanks
to him I am familiar today with all the reptiles in Israel, inside out." Many of
the snakes and alligators that he catches spend time in the zoological garden,
at least as a way station on their way to being displayed in Nahariya.
Keller spent his childhood in Yehud and later in Atlit, or rather mainly in the
fields surrounding them. He was one of those kids who comes home with a little
snake and a mischievous smile. Already in 1987 he was a supervisor for the
INPPA in Sinai; indeed there are few people who can compete with his experience
and his network of contacts, certainly in the area of reptiles and how to catch
them.
There is a reason why over the years he reached the very top, and also holds the
title of "person responsible for snake catchers on behalf of the INPPA." He has
developed unique methods of trapping not only for catching snakes but songbirds
and bats as well. He has his own tricks that he teaches his students.
First thing in the morning we spend together, he got a call and, on his own,
collected eight vipers in the fields of Binyamina. Two days later, he will be
giving a course for snake catchers. "It's important to provide an orderly
solution for this matter, because snakes get into people's homes. Not everyone
can be a collector of snakes and reptiles, you have to be very familiar with
the field. There are about 300 certified collectors in the country, most of
them connected to us, and we try to provide a solution for everyone. If someone
collects snakes and doesn't know what to do with them, we'll take care of them."
There is almost no species of snake that has not been imported, legally or
illegally, to slither about in the Holy Land. "Cobras, mambas, bamboo vipers,"
Keller enumerates some of them, "very poisonous and very dangerous snakes are
imported here, by private snake lovers or travelers returning from the East,
but mainly by professional smugglers. There's always a market for them."
Israeli law prohibits private citizens from importing or keeping poisonous
snakes at home, "because the public good comes first," explains the sheriff,
but the battle with the smugglers and the growers is endless. "Sometimes
they're just naive people who don't really understand," he says, "but for some
it's a business. And when you get into this area of smuggling, of crime, you
know where you begin, but not where you'll end up. There are many kinds of
problems with the people who deal with snakes. One of them even murdered
another collector (Harel Hirschtick of Kibbutz Deganya Bet was convicted of the
murder of Yaakov Sela, the guru of many snake collectors in Israel, who had an
affair with Hirschtick's mother; the motive for the murder was a financial
debt). From my experience, I haven't come across anyone who deals with
reptiles, including me, who isn't somewhat weird. Sometimes in a nice way,
sometimes it's a serious disturbance."
Latest 'hit'
Keller leads the battle against smuggling animals into Israel. There are animals
that are not from rare or dangerous species, which may be brought into the
country, "but every single animal has to have the permission of the INPPA, and
of course you pay a token fee to the authority and V.A.T. and you need
documents, and it's too much for certain people, so they take shortcuts. In
other words, they smuggle."
The latest "hit" in the field, according to Keller, is red-eared turtles. "This
is a swamp turtle," he explains, "which is very aggressive and dominant. You
release it into water sources, it will kill everything around it and then
remain alone. They are brought here when they're the size of a shekel coin,
they grow to 20 or 30 times their original size, and in the end people release
them into the wild. Those red-eared turtles are a plague. Children raise them -
for them it's neither a fish nor a snake, but a cute little turtle, and then
when they grow they throw them into rivers, fish pools, everywhere. And they
survive.
"Those who take shortcuts only bring a few shoe boxes in from Turkey, where the
red-eared turtle costs maybe NIS 2, and bring them to Israel, where it costs
NIS 20, and on 1,000 tiny turtles the traders make NIS 18,000. Tens of
thousands of these turtles are brought into Israel every year. I catch them in
packages of hundreds, and recently I caught 1,200 in one shot. Many turtles are
also smuggled here from Florida, the soft-shell turtle, which is a cousin of the
Israeli turtle. There's a good market for them, too."
What else flows in?
"Aside from the reptiles, there's a lot of smuggling of parrots, regular
smuggling of monkeys, of mammals. The annual loot comes to thousands of birds,
dozens of squirrels, snakes - there is virtually no animal that they haven't
tried to bring into the country. There's also a small number of tiger cubs.
There was one flight attendant who smuggled tiger cubs for a living. There are
tourists coming from the Far East who end their trip by smuggling several
animals in their pockets."
Let's say you've returned from Thailand with a little monkey, to whom would you
sell it?
"Usually they know exactly to whom to transfer it, and if they don't know, then
they come in to find out - and then they get to me."
Apparently, Keller's comments conceal a hint of another kind of information
source in his complex intelligence network. In any case, Keller is a one-man
band, and his battle against crime is complex indeed: "First of all, we receive
initial information, and then I locate the target, ascertain information with
the police intelligence coordinator, coordinate positions with the police,
gather intelligence prior, get a search warrant in court, and join the police
on the ground. I invite the team, mainly detectives. We arrive and say, 'Hello,
sir, we have a search warrant here ...,' and usually the perpetrator already
knows why we've come."
And that's just the beginning: "And then I take testimony on the spot, I do the
investigation. After we catch them I send the animals for rehabilitation, and
deal with the rest of their lives. At the same time I am in effect the
investigator in a criminal case, as well as the chief witness for the
prosecution, and in effect the actual prosecutor in court. You don't have to be
a lawyer in order to be a prosecutor, it's enough to be familiar with the
material, and I am."
The plague of illegal trade in animals is spreading among all the social
classes. From amateur mule breeders in poor neighborhoods up to the highest
income brackets. Keller: "Just for your information, how much does a pair of
palm cockatoo parrots cost? How much should an incubating pair cost? $100,000,
habibi. And these parrots don't talk. I've caught these smugglers, of course.
It's for people who order them specially, they have this obsession, and are
very wealthy people. Some of it is legitimate money, some of it is black
market. Is there any shortage of billionaires here who will spend NIS 100,000
on a pair of these cockatoos? It's the wealthiest 1/1,000th of the population
who are involved in this. They also pay for the entire smuggling route; there
are professionals who do the work for them and they get the merchandise
delivered to their home. To Savyon, to Kfar Shmaryahu, to Herzliya Pituah. To
them it's a sport, but to me it's a crime! But lately there has been a steep
decline in this area."
Why a decline?
"Because of avian flu. The millionaires are afraid of catching it."
Ivory scare
Keller covers long distances all over the country with his green Isuzu, and in
the city, too. On the way to his favorite hummus place in Jaffa, a way station
before he goes in to arrange something in the neighborhood police station, he
slows down near a shop that has two huge elephant tusks at the entrance? Could
it be? After all, trading in wild animal parts is also against the law. "Here,"
he says, pointing at the shop, "we once conducted a police search. We received
information and came here, but it turned out that these tusks are made of wood.
A decoration," he says laughing.
It's true that he and his colleagues are not always successful, especially when
it comes to ivory. "I received a report about some classy shop in a luxury
hotel, where there are a lot of ivory statues. So I did a search there, and it
turned out that they are in fact ivory articles, but from mammoth tusks. It
turns out that they found a huge area of mammoth herds in Siberia, and they
trade freely in their ivory. There is a large market for that. At Ben-Gurion
airport we once found a shipment of mammoth ivory worth hundreds of thousands
of dollars. It comes from Bangkok in large containers. The Siamese do all kinds
of work on mammoth ivory: drawings, engravings, collages, and sell it for a lot
of money. The problem is that it's hard to differentiate between elephant ivory
and mammoth ivory, because the only difference is in the angle of the tusks. And
I'm not a big expert in either elephants or mammoths."
Did you have any successes with ivory?
"Yes, of course. For example, in an antique shop at the entrance to some kibbutz
I found two large tusks. The information came from someone who had visited the
shop, reported to us, and we really let the owner have it. We did the same to
the woman who had sold it to him - some woman from Tel Aviv who had connections
to the foreign service."
The alligator breeders, on the other hand, are not connected to any foreign
service. Usually they are less established people, like the guy who received a
pregnant female alligator as a gift, and managed to give away dozens of her
offspring as holiday gifts among the top criminals, before he himself was shot
to death. Many of the alligators were found by the police (guess who did the
work behind the scenes?), but some of the criminals claimed that they had found
the reptiles while they were still small on the banks of the Yarkon River in Tel
Aviv. Because this is a matter of public welfare and every possibility must be
examined, Keller and his friends spent several nights patrolling the banks of
the river, flashlights in hand, waiting for the alligator to venture forth in
the darkness. It never did.
Keller prefers to stumble here and there rather than ignore any piece of
information that comes into his hands, even the most fragmentary bits.
Otherwise, how would he have caught a 84-centimeter-long alligator in Nahal
Alexander about a year ago, when the rumor of its existence came from an
unknowledgeable hiker?
Since he is the equivalent of an elite commando unit in his field, the sheriff
is also involved in handling thefts. Or as he puts it: "I provide a very good
solution to the problem of the theft of animals as well. Did someone steal a
parrot from you? The police will not solve your problem. I will. They call me
from the police: 'Aryeh, they've stolen a parrot here, maybe you know
something, maybe you can help,' and when they catch stolen parrots they bring
them to me, so that I can find the owner. Then I make the connection and return
it to its owner."
This is perhaps the place to mention that illegal iguanas are also handled by
Keller, and some of them have been caught, but this is not the case when it
comes to piranhas and other dangerous or illegal fish. "I also catch piranhas
if I can," says Keller, who is quick to praise his colleagues from the naval
commando unit, who assist in this area. "But when it comes to trade in fish -
that is the fisheries department. They do excellent work there in the
department. That's not my field."
A country of stupidity
Keller emphasizes that it is both possible and permissible to trade in animals
in accordance with the rules of the Washington Convention, but it is strictly
forbidden to trade in endangered species, even if you represent a zoo. "That's
the strictest level of the convention, which comes to protect chimpanzees,
gorillas, elephants, animals of that kind. But there is also a second level,
which permits trade, as in species of parrots and reptiles, but only in their
offspring. In other words, it is forbidden to grab a parrot from the tree and
to trade in it, but if the parrot was born in some children's zoo then you can
sell it, with a legal document of course. With the documents you have an
indication where they come from, who the parents are, how many generations, and
then it's possible to coordinate and keep track of them. As with dogs and cats.
Our battle is against the large numbers of people who engage in trade without a
permit."
Keller is quite satisfied with the "improvement in public awareness" regarding
criminal activity involving animals, but he is not always pleased with the
severity of punishment. "The most common range of fines for smuggling reptiles
is NIS 7,500 to NIS 25,000. Sometimes there is a suspended sentence, and there
have been some who sat in prison for a while, but the law here is still not
anchored as in the United States, where it's a federal statute. There one goes
straight to prison for a considerable period of time for smuggling. Here it's
the land of milk and honey and stupidity. Everyone has some kind of a meeting
and issues regulations, it's all to cover their asses."
Are there politicians who show special interest in this area?
"Oh, we had an excellent lobbyist in the Knesset, but he left in order to take
care of his sick father. Omri Sharon. It was in his soul and in his genes. If
he hadn't been an MK, he would have been a INPPA supervisor."
If I may get back to the mules, there's something I didn't understand. What do
you do with all the finch nestlings that you rescue?
"The ones that can't fly I keep in my house in Karkur. I have a four-meter cage,
and they stay there until they slowly learn to fly. Sometimes it takes days and
sometimes weeks. When I see that the nestling has learned to fly, I release it
into the wild. If you've taken them and released them when they don't yet know
how to fly, you've killed them. So I take care of them in my house."