Weekly Report August 15th -27th, 2010

• On Sunday, August 15th, the Steering Committee for the Arava Center for Sustainable Development (ACSD) met with Professor Bernard Amadei, founder of Engineers Without Borders EWB USA and EWB International http://www.ewb-international.org/ and Dr Vered Doctori founder of EWB Israel.  Professor Amadei presented the history and activity EWB in the USA and around the world.  Dr Doctori presented the work of EWB Israel is in the process of becoming its own registered association in Israel and has established a number of chapters on campuses around the country. Dr. Doctori proposed establishing a chapter of EWB at the Arava Institute.  We discussed different ways for EWB and the Arava Institute (AIES) to cooperate through ACSD.  We also discussed involving our alumni in the chapter. Amit Eliyahu, the new coordinator of ACSD initiated the visit and he will continue to develop the cooperation between EWB and ACSD. 
• Kibbutz Ketura and Keren Kolot hosted the Red Sea College - Arava Valley of Peace Summer program http://redsea-college.org/ of about 30 Israeli, Palestinian, Jordanian and international high school students (16 to 17 year old). The summer program is part of the United World College organization http://www.uwc.org/ which has established international high schools around the world  whose goal is "to deliver a challenging and transformative educational experience to a diverse cross section of students, inspiring them to create a more peaceful and sustainable future". The longterm vision of the Red Sea College is to build an environmental high school program in the Arava that brings Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians and students from all over the world to learn how to work together to protect their shared environment.  Sound familiar?  Though the program was hosted by Keren Kolot, the Arava Institute was involved in the program and the long term goal is to create a permanent framework for cooperation between the newly planned international high school and the institute.  The summer program is a pilot program and was considered very successful.  The expectation is that the summer program will continue every summer until the establishment of the high school is feasible.
• Though there are no students during the summer, the Academic Programs Department was not quiet.  In addition to the usual activity of preparing for the coming semester and the recruiting students there has been a great deal of activity in human resources:
• Moishe Siel, the Program Director for the last three years announced that he was leaving Kibbutz Samar, his home and moving away from the area.  He therefore, sadly announced his resignation as Program Director.  The Human Resources Committee has recommended that Cathie Granit, currently the Academic Coordinator replace Moishe as Program Director.  In addition, Brenda Hausler has been hired as Admissions Coordinator and Barbara Finkel as the new Campus Life Director.  Dr. Elli Groner, remains the Academic Director and will be overseeing a practically all new excellent all female Academic Programs Department Staff.  Good luck Elli!
• Shira Kronich sent me the following update on her trip to Brazil with Dr. Shmuel Brenner:
• Dr. Shmuel Brenner and Shira Kronich were invited to participate as a speakers in the Second International Conference on Climate, Sustainability and Development in Semi-arid Regions (ICID 2010), in Fortaleza, Ceara, Brazil. ICID18 conference aimed to create a space for the intensive and productive exchange of new ideas and experiences. As a platform for the production of knowledge, to enable discussions throughout the week to result in new ways of living on earth that promote cultural diversity and leverage the social and natural sciences toward integrative, innovate and sustainable new development pathways. On day 2 AIES presented 'The whole life cycle approach to capacity building in Semi arid lands; a case study of Sauri, Kenya'.
  
  
  
  
  
  This presentation aimed to discuss and share AIES ideas and the experience of the Arava Centre for Sustainable Development (ACSD) in transferring its expertise – in agricultural techniques, integrated water management, renewable energy systems, sustainable development, ecosystem protection and climate change effects in semi-arid lands – to developing countries facing conditions of poverty, food insecurity, desertification and water problems. The presentation described ACSD’s interdisciplinary, trans-boundary, whole life cycle approach to addressing environmental and social problems and then explores specifically the ACSD capacity building workshops in Sauri. The workshops focused on increasing agricultural yield and accessing the market as well as optimizing water use for domestic and agricultural purposes. The ultimate objective of the presentation was to discuss the potential and limitations of the whole life cycle approach to development in semi-arid lands and share ACSD's lessons learnt and future goals.  
• On Monday, August 23rd, Hamutal Lerner from Midot, the Israeli non-profit organization that rates non-profit organizations in Israel, spent time at the institute reviewing our performance, interviewing staff members and getting updated on changes that have taken place at the institute since the last time Midot performed a rating review two years ago. At that time, the institute received a very high rating of -A.  We certainly expect our rating to remain the same or to improve in this next review.
• Tuesday, August 24th, Dr. Shmuel Brenner, straight back from Brazil, Dr. Clive Lipchin and I met in Jerusalem at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs with Ambassador Haim Divon, Direcor of MASHAV Israel's Agency for International Development Cooperation, with Ilan Flus, Bat Eden Kite and other MASHAV staff as well as private consultant Dr. Tamar Ron, expert on international development and conservation programs.  The purpose of the meeting was to review Dr. Ron's proposal to set up the Israel Center for Sustainable Development through Environmental Cooperation (ICSD).  The purpose of the new center which would be part of MASHAV is:  To strengthen Israel’s role in achieving global environmental and sustainable development goals. To support sustainability in achieving the environmental conventions’ goals in developing countries, through establishment of bi-lateral partnerships, with focus on developing and delivering tailor-made comprehensive capacity building programs in cooperation and consultation with governments, organizations, communities and other stakeholders in specific countries.  The Arava Institute has been proposed as the primary partner for this new Israeli Foreign Ministry initiative as the operational center of the program.  This is a very exciting development and the ACSD team will discuss the proposal and how best to design the framework for cooperation with the Ministry.
• The Sababa Steering Committee met on Wednesday night at the Eilat/Eilot Renewable Energy Initiative Offices. The agenda included a review of the Hevel Eilot Regional Master Plan for development in the Arava and a presentation of the Open Spaces Rating System being used to determine the value of areas arond the Arava for development and conservation.  The Hevel Eilot region covers 13% of the land of the State of Israel including much of the countries last remaining wilderness, therefore, it is the responsibility of the region to be very thoughtfull regarding development and conservation decisions which are critical to the future natural resources of the country.  The Sababa Steering Committee takes this responsibility very seriously and will issue a statement regarding the proposed master plan and how the Open Spaces Rating system should be used.
• On Thursday, Shlomit Yarkoni, from Ben Or Consulting, spent the day at the institute meeting with staff in preparation for the Israeli Financial Resource Development Work Plan, Ben Or will present in September to the institute.  

David Lehrer

Weekly Report July 18th-30th, 2010

• Once every six months, Miriam Sharton, the Associate Director and I have a private feedback session with almost every member of the staff. Sometimes, Miriam and I sit together with a staff member and sometimes we meet seperately with an individual member. It is an opportunity for the staff member to raise issues, give feedback to the administration and in general express how they are feeling at the institute. It is also an opportunity for Mriiam and I to give feedback, both positive and negative to staff members basically to ensure that lines of communication remain open. This feedback system has been a tradition at the Arava Institute for almost 10 years and has been extremely helpful in flaging problems and maintaining a positive work atmosphere. This past week, Miriam and I met with about 25 staff members in order to give and receive feedback. Sometimes these sessions simple and sometimes they can be difficult but no matter what, they are always important.

• Clive Lipchin and Shira Kronich came back from Kenya where the Arava Institute ran a course on Rain Water Harvesting for two groups of farmers. The course was funded by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is part of a new initiative at the Arava Institute, headed by Dr. Shmuel Brenner, the Arava Center for Sustainable Development in Arid Lands (ACSDAL) which provides training and extensions services to peoples from the developing world.

• During the week of July 18th to the 22nd, Arava Institute alumni, Yair Teller, Abeer Abu Sara and Leora Smith began a new alumni project in Susiya, a Palestinian Village in the West Bank building biodigesters to deal with the problem of animal waste while providing clean burning methane gas for cooking and heating. Leora and Abeer ran a parrallel environmental education program for children in order to expose them to environmental concepts.
• On Sunday, July 25th, Dr. Michael Beyth, the Chairman of the Arava Institute Board of Directors met with our two Israel resource development consultants, Neal Levy and Shlomit Yarkoni from Ben Or Consulting regarding our Israeli Resource Development Work Plan. We discussed different avenues for development in Israel and how to position the institute in terms of Israeli donors. We expect to receive the work plan by the end of September. 
• That afternoon, I stopped in on ECOWEEK, an international meeting of "green architects" who are spending the week looking at sustainable building design in Israel and Palestine. The Arava Institute is one of the sponsors of the conference. Judy Bar Lev, the institute's office manager and expert on Palestinian permits and Jordanian visas obtained permits for a number of Palestinian architects to attend the conference. One of whom is interested in coming to the institute in the fall. Donny Ornstein, an Arava Institute faculty member represented the institute at the opening session. http://www.ecoweek.netfirms.com/ecoweek.gr/ecoweek2010_BJ/index.html
• Tuesday, Friends of the Arava Institute (FAI) past Board Chair and current Board member, Eric Berzon and his wife Danielle Ruymaker arrived at the institute for a few days of meetings and relaxing. Eric and Danielle got a tour of the institute, met a number of different staff members, participated in a staff meeting and of course got a tour of Dr. Elaine Sollowey's experimental orchard.
• Another visitor on Tuesday was Sam Yosefowitz, from Switzerland, who together with Rennselar University would like to fund a project he calls, an Agricultural Oasis, an independent desert farm that provides itself with its own purified water and energy. If the institute receives the grant, the project will go under the auspices of ACSDAL and will be a partnership between the Arava Institue and the Southern Arava Agricultural R & D Center.

OK -that's about all I got - a relatively quite two weeks at the Arava Institute.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report July 4th- July 16th, 2010

• On Monday, July 5th, I spent the day in Jerusalem meeting with various people regarding a multitude of issues concerning the Institute.  In the morning I met with Yaakov Mimron and Yossi Vertzberger from the Ministry of Infrastrucure.  Yaakov is head of mining resources in Israel and Yossi, who works under him oversees sand mining. I met with them to discuss an alternative to sand mining of the Samar Sand Dunes, an important ecological resource in the Arava and one which is being threatened by a potential sand mining for building operation.  An agreement was achieved to pursue testing an alternative to destroying the dunes. Sababa, the Center for Sustainable Development in the Arava is very involved in this campaign.
• In addition to this meeting, I also met with Avner Fuchs, past president of Rotary Israel about how the institute could partner with Rotary Israel and Rotary International on Fundraising.  I also met with Avner Simon, the institute's architect to discuss the design of the new dorms.  Finally, no trip to Jerusalem would be complete without a quick shopping spree in Machaneh Yehuda.
• On Tuesday, thanks to our Arava Institute board member, Phillip Mendlinker, the Institute hosted directors from the Israeli Electric Company (IEC).  The institue arranged a tour of the region which included a visit to the proposed renewable energy industrial area, the Aora Solar Tower at Kibbutz Samar and a visit to the Arava Institute. Directors of the IEC who visited were, Moshe Bachar, David Almachias, Assad Joubran and Asher Dahan.  The visit was coordinated with the Eilat Eilot Renenwable Energy Initiative and the Arava Power Company.  Much of the discussion with the IEC was how the electricity that will be generated in the Arava will be sent back up north.
• On Sunday, July 11th, the staff reviewed the price proposals submitted by contractors for building the Research and Visitors Park.  The lowest bid came from Kibbutz Neot Smadar, one of Ketura's neighbors in the mountains behind Ketura.  The building should start by the last week in July.
• That same afternoon, the institute held the annual summer ice cream party for staff and staff families.  Judy Bar Lev and Ronit Friedman organized the event with ice cream from Kibbutz Yotvata. A very sweet afternoon!
• For some reason, everyone decided to come visit the institute on July 13th!  In the morning the Arava Institue and the Dead Sea Arava Science Center hosted ICA (Jewish Colonization Association) which is the Baron de Hirsch family foundation that has funded agriculture and development in Israel for over 100 years.  ICA has funded purchasing lab equipment for the renewable energy lab and we have a request for more equipment next year.
• Next, we hosted Richard Summers, Toronto Federation represenative,  who brought with him consultants who work with the Toronto Jewish Federation in resource development.
• Finally, Yael Shatiel, Executive Director of JNF Israel (KKL) along with 15 other KKL managers visited the insititute in order here about developments at the institute and updates on the new dorms.
• In the evening I attended the presenation of the regional master plan 2030, which lays out how the Arava Region (Hevel Eilot) will grow and develop in the next 20 years. As a local environmetnal organization, the Arava Institute and its public involvement arm, Sababa have been very involved in issues around regional planing.  In addtion to myself, Taal Goldman, Sababa Coordinator and 4 other members of the Sababa steering committee attended the meeting and were active in the discussion.  Sababa has established itself as an important environmental voice in the region.
• On Wednesday, July 14th, Shlomit Yardeni and Neal Levy, two partners at Ben Or Consulting spent the day at the institute initiating the in depth analysis of the institute as preparation for an Israeli resources development work plan that they have been contracted to provide the institute. Shlomit and Neal spent the day meeting staff and talking with each department to get a better understanding of the institute's strengths and weaknesses.  In addition to Neal and Shlomit, Shir Harel, the institute's webmaster also came down to participate in the meetings because we assume the website and new media will be an important part of our resource development strategy.
• On Thursday, Miriam Sharton and Tamar Norkin arranged a short seminar on renewable energy in the Hevel Eilot region for 15 MBA students from Maryland University.   The tour was led by Asher Epstein, Managing Director, Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship,Robert H. Smith School of Business.  The students were intrigued by the amount of entrepreneurship in the field of renewable energy in the region.  The visit also helps strengthen the relationship between Maryland University and the Arava Institute which has had a student exchange program for many years.
• The same day I was in Tel Aviv, meeting with our colleagues from the Heschel Center and representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture regarding the joint Sustainable Food Initiative of Heschel and the Arava Institue.  The ministry is very interested in joining the initiative and we discussed other parters from the agricultural, business and civil society sectors who we would like to invite to be part of a wider coalition that supports a social and economic shift towards a more sustainable food system in Israel.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report - December 13th -18th, 2009

Hanukah is usually a quite week at the institute. The students are in classes but life slows down a bit as most of Israel goes on semi-vacation:

• The week started with a dedication ceremony for the Center for Sustainable Agriculture's new office expansion and new tractor funded by the Vivian and Ed Merrin Family Foundation Grant. Students, staff, faculty and friends were invited for a ribbon cutting ceremony, candle lighting and a jelly donut feast.

• Monday night, the Sababa Steering Committee met to discuss submitting Timna Park to be declared as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The declaration would help to protect the park and the surrounding area from over development. Sababa Steering Committee members also discussed alternative locations for the proposed resort hotel that is being developed near Timna Park.
• On Wednesday, Shir Harel, the Arava Institute's webmaster from Ben Or Consulting came to the institute to discuss new media strategy - website, youtube, facebook, flicker etc. Shir first met with all of the staff and went over website statistics. Since the summer, the website has almost doubled its site visits. In addition, the website now appears on page 5 when googling "environmental studies" - previously we had disappeared from that search. In the coming months the institute will develop it youtube profile and become more organized in terms of facebook presence.
• On Wednesday night, the students lite the Hanukah candles in the dinning room of the kibbutz, sang the blessing over the candles and sang a Hanukah song.
• Thursday, the Executive Committee devoted time to finalizing the 2010 institute budget.

David Lehrer