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 June 20th - July 2nd, 2010

It has been a very busy two weeks:

• On June 21st and 22nd, I attended the 38th annual conference of the Israel Society of Ecology and Environmental Sciences.   A number of Arava Institute faculty attended the conference including Elli Groner, the Arava Institue Academic Director, Shmuel Brenner, Nir Becker, Donny Ornstein and of course Alon Tal.  In addition to faculty a large number of Arava Institute alumni also attended the confernce which brings together Israel's leading academic and professional ecologists and environmentalists to discuss current research in the field.  Shmuel Brenner and Alon Tal appeared on the main panel discussing nuclear energy in Israel.  I gave a presentation of my research on the economic impact of invasive species. 
• Immediately after I gave my presentation, I left the confernce in order to catch my flight to Sri Lanka where I had been invited to attend a workshop sponsored by the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) to discuss the report that IWMI is preparing for UNEP on the role of ecosystems in providing clean water and other ecoservices for agriculture.  The institue was asked to participate in the writing of the report which is a collaborative work by research institutes around the globe.  It was very exciting for me to visit Sri Lanka as it was my first venture to the Far East.  The people I met both from Sri Lanka and from the research institutes were great.  The meetings were held in Colombo which is the capital of Sri Lanka and the home of the IWMI.  I had one day for site seeing but as it was a Budhist holiday, the shopping was limited.  I was able to visit a Budhist Temple for the first time in my life.  See trip report.  

• This same week, Clive Lipchin, Shira Kronich and Yair Teller took off for Kenya.  Through its new center, the Arava Center for Sustainable Development in Arid Lands (ACSDAL), the institute has partnered with MASHAV - Israel's development aid department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to run 2 week long courses on water management in Sauri, a rural area of Kenya which suffers from a lack of infrastructure; electricity, water and roads.  Clive, Shira and Yair will be running a course on water management for households and small farms using a rainwater harvesting and treatment system developed especially for this project by an Israeli company called Shamraz.  The demonstration project was first set up at the institue and then shipped to Kenya.  In addition to the course, Clive will be holding meetings with additional contacts in Kenya as well as making a trip to Tanzinia to meet with Sivan Achor-Borowitch, founder of Jewish Hearts for Africa, regarding the establishment of an eco-village.
• The week of June 20th to the 24th was also the final week of the semester at the institute.  Students completed their papers and took final exams.  They spent the week cleaning the campus and meeting with staff in order to give feedback about the semester.  As usual, the students expressed overwhelming satisfaction in their experience at the institute along with suggestions for improvement.  The final party was held on Tuesday night and Thursday afternoon after a very tearful goodbye, most students got on the bus and left.  

• On Sunday June 27th, the staff said goodbye to Amit Chertoff our Student Life Coordinator and our two Program Associates, Yousre Odeh and Lauren Rauch.  Though the academic year 2009-2010 presented its challenges, it was very successful and much credit goes to Amit, Yousre and Lauren as well as Michelle Shachar, Student Life Director and the other members of the Academic Staff.  The institute wishes Amit, Yousre and Lauren lots of luck and hopes to see them back at the institute soon.
• On Wednesday night, June 30th, Sababa held its monthly steering committee meeting.  The committee was updated on a number of initiatives such as the initiative to list Timna Valley as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, meetings with the secretariats of the kibbutzim in the area, and the Timna hotel campaign.  In addition, Avi Ramot, from the regional council water authority spoke about the planned new water reservoirs in the region.  The committee then discussed the main issue of the meeting, the Samar Sand Dunes and the contractor's request for a building a mining permit.  Taal Goldman and I updated the committee on what is happening and the committee decided to issue a letter to the region urging action to delay the issuing of the permit.
• Professor Emeritus, Frank Fisher from MIT arrived on Wednesday night in order to meet with staff and discuss opportunities for collaboration.  Professor Fisher is an economist who has worked on the issue of trans-boundary water management between Israel, Palestine and Jordan.  Professor Fisher and his colleagues at MIT have developed a computer model that serves as a decision support system for water and resource allocation in the Middle East.  Professor Fisher would like to work with the Arava Institute in updating the model (the information is 10 years old) and expanding to other countries in the region.  Professor Fisher is on the Board of the New Israel Fund and the American Friends of Peace Now.  Professor Fisher has also recently become involved in the new JNF Parsons Water Fund.

David Lehrer
 

Weekly Report March 7th to 12th, 2010

• A television film crew from Finnish TV came this week to interview Dr. Elaines Solowey, students and me. The crew was fascinated by our work and hopes to come back to do other stories. I don't know when the piece will be aired but as soo as I do, I will let all of our fans in Finland know when they can see the Arava Institute on TV.
• The Finish TV crew had the opportunity to catch a glimpse of this week's PELS session PELS hosted Dr. Walim Saleem and Dr. Eyal Naveh who gave the students different perspectives on the current Israeli Palestinian conflict.
• On Tuesday afternoon, we held the second meeting of the Arava Center for Sustainable Development in Arid Lands (ACSDAL). The Center headed by Dr. Shmuel Brenner is a partnership between the Arava Institute, the Southern Area Agricultural Research and Development Center at Yotvata and the Dead Sea Arava Science Center. ACSDAL's pupose is to help transmit the knowledge developed by these three institutions to developing countries around the world suffering from desertification and poverty. Working with Israel's Foreign Ministry, the ACSDALwill use applied research, training and extension services to reach out beyond Israel's borders to people provide appropriate technology for sustainable agriculture, water management and renewable energy solutions.
• At the same time as the ACSDAL meeting, Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, head of the Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation met with representatives of the British Embassy who came down to look at the Arava Technology Validation Center and the other work the Arava Institute is doing in Renewable Energy. The British Government is interested in promoting bilateral research between Israeli and British scientists similar to programs Israel has with the US. They are especially interested in clean-technologies.
• As busy as everyone is at the institute, the whole day Wednesday was set aside for a staff workshop. The day was arranged by Miriam Sharton and Sharon Benheim as part of their responsibilities on the Human Resources committee. With the help of an outside faciliator, the staff spent the day dealing with issues such as team work, decision making, communication and institutionall growth. This is the second year in a row that the institute has held this type of seminar and it seems that there is a concensus that this is an important element that needs to be on our calendar every year.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report November 29th - December 11th, 2009

OK - it has been two weeks since I have had a chance to write something for the blog.

• In fact the week of November 29th to the 4th was a fairly quite week at the institute. The students were all studying, the staff members were all working and meeting. The only exciting thing that happened that week was on Shabbat, I rode my bike to Eilat and then went diving.

Last week however was a bit more exciting.

• Cecil and Sharon spent Sunday and Monday interviewing 20 Jordanian students in Amman.
• On Monday night, a tremendous amount of rain poured from the skies all over Israel including in the Negev and the Arava. On Tuesday morning on my way to an 8:30 meeting with Avigad Vornshak, the Director of the Blaustein Institutes at the Sde Boker Campus of BGU, I came to Nahal Faran, which looked like the Colorado river. I could not cross the Nahal and it did not look like the water would subside any time soon. I turned my car around and drove back to the Arava road (route 90) and headed north. I turned off at the Maaleh Acrabim (Scorpion's Ascent) road. It is an amazing back road climb out of the Arava Valley onto the Negev Heights plain. The road is a narrow twisting steep climb of a few hundred feet almost straight up. At the top, I continued on through the Big Machtesh (Crater) finally arriving at Yeroham. This is the route we once sent the Chalutzim Riders on the 2007 Israel Ride (there is a reason we call them the Meshugaim). I was finally able to get to Sde Boker only a half hour late.
• Elli Groner and I met Avigad Vornshak. We had an excellent meeting in which we worked out the kinks of the financial arrangements for the Masters Program for North American students, discussed how to move forward on the Energy and the Environment Masters Program and discussed the possibility of collaborating on an Israel Studies program.
• Wednesday morning, Elli and I met with Shaul Krakover, the Dean of the BGU Eilat campus in order to finalize the details of the legal agreement that we are signing with BGU.
• That same morning, Professor Pua Bar (Kutiel) the new Academic Coordinator from BGU gave a lecture to our Masters students at their weekly Masters Seminar. Professor Bar (Kutiel) is an Ecologist in the BGU Geography department in Ber Sheva.
• In the afternoon, over 20 people attended the brainstorming session on the establishment of the Arava Center for Sustainable Development in Arid Lands. Dr. Shmuel Brenner will head the new center which is a partnership with the Southern Arava Research and Development Center at Yotvata and the Dead Sea Arava Science Center. The new center will provide research, training programs and extensions services to developing countries around the world suffering from a lack of water and desertification. The center will partner with the Israeli Foreign Ministry on the Millennium Villages project as well as other partner organizations.
• Thursday afternoon, the Academic Department held an open day and hosted 10 potential Israeli students at the institute. The potential students met current students, staff, were interviewed and tested for English proficiency.
• Friday afternoon, the Arava Alumni Peace and Environmental Network (AAPEN) Alumni Conference subcommittee met on Skype in order to plan for the Alumni Conference in February.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report - October 18th to 30th, 2009

It has been two weeks since I have been able to write in the blog. It has been a very busy two weeks:

• I came back from my trip to Portugal on Sunday evening October 18th. If you have not yet seen my report click here: David's Trip to Portugal Report .
• Dr. Clive Lipchin and Dr. Shmuel Brenner also returned from their trip to Kenya. Clive and Shmuel's Trip to Kenya Report. The highlight of their trip was meeting President Obama's Grandmother!
• Together with the Dead Sea Arava Science Center, we hosted a visit from the Jewish Colonization Association, the Foundation that distributes the Baron D'Hirsch fortune. The foundation is considering funding lab equipment for the Arava Institute and the Science Center.
• On Friday, October 23rd, Eco-Paths, the Arava Institute's events department held the first annual "Arava Challenge" Ride. It was a 35 kilometer off road ride from Arad to the Dead Sea. We had 25 participants. People had a great time. Arava Challenge
• On that same Friday, October 23rd, our Jordanian Alumni held their first Alumni event in Jordan on 350 CO2 day. A group of alumi decided to do their own event as an initial step. So they partnered with other organizations in the 350 event that was held as a march on the Rainbow Street in Amman Jordan. 350 Event
• On Monday, October 26th, Israel and Jordan celebrated the 15th anniversary of the Jordanian Israeli Peace Treaty. Judy Bar Lev organized a delegation from the Arava Institue to attend the celebration and gives the following report:The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel and the Truman Institute Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace of Hebrew University sponsored a symposium on Monday October 26th 2009 to celebrate 15 years to the signing of the Peace Treaty between Israel and Jordan.
  Here at the Machon Arava we have a number of colleagues at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jordan Section who have assisted us over the years in arranging for our students from Jordan to obtain visas to study and live at Kibbutz Ketura.
  They invited us to send a delegation to the symposium of staff and Jordanian students.
  With the effort of leaving Ketura at 05:30 am and some of our alumni who are now at the Albert Katz school for Desert Studies at Sde Boker we arrived at 9:00am to the Truman Institute on Mount Scopus.
  We were given the red carpet treatment upon arrival and our students had the opportunity to greet Jordan's Ambassador to Israel Ali al-Ayed who spoke later on about his participation in creating the Peace Agreement. Additional speakers were James Cunningham, U.S. ambassador to Israel and Yaakov Rosen, Israel's Ambassador to Jordan.
  We made numerous additional personal connections during the coffee breaks, making the long day very much worth the travelling. The presence in the audience of our delegation from The Arava Institute was mentioned from the podium twice during the morning sessions.
• On Tuesday, October 27th, the Institute held the bimonthly Board of Directors meeting chaired by Dr. Michael Beyth. Board members heard positive reports on student recruitment, the academic program, new research projects and fundraising successes in the US. The Board also approved of the planning process for next year's goals and budgets.
• Wednesday morning, the Research Department held a research department meeting. In addition to hearing about Shmuel and Clive's trip to Kenya, researchers and grant writers updated each other on grant requests, grant approvals and research progress. The institute is currently involved in research on crops for arid lands, biofuel production from agricultural waste, biogas production from animal waste, dust settling research, hydrogen fuel production from solar energy, long term ecological and social research and the Dead Sea Red Sea Feasibility Study. Clive Lipchin, head of the Research Department emphasized the importance of publishing peer reviewed articles for journals. As usual, there was not enough time to talk about everything that is happening in the research department.
• Parrallel to the Research Department meeting, Dr. Tareq Abu Hamed, head of the Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation hosted Dr. Claude Trink from the French Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and Town and Country Planning and Ms. Sophie Miller from the French Embassy. France is very interested in bilateral cooperation with Israel on renewable energy. Dr. Trink and Ms. Miller spent a few hours at the Institute and were very impressed with what they saw. We can expect further contact with the Embassy.

David Lehrer

Weekly Report October 11th-16th, 2009

Summer is over and so are the holidays. Time to get back to work and it started this week:

• The big news of course is that on Wednesday night, we opened the Fall Semester 2009 with 45 students! The largest semester in the history of the Institute. 15 Israelis, 12 North Americans, 12 Palestinians, 5 Jordanians and 1 Australian. The group looks great and the Academic Programs Department is completely prepared for a great semester. This week is orientation and next week starts classes.
• We had the third meeting of the Coordination Committee between the Institute and the Kibbutz which tries to promote a positive relationship between Kibbutz members and the Institute.
• In addition to the start of a new semester, the Fall schedule looks quite full and a lot of time was spent this week in meetings preparing for these events. Here is just a sample:
• October 23rd - Arava Challenge - One day off road ride for Israelis
• November 4th-9th - Israel Ride Fall 2009 from Tsfat to Eilat
• November 19th-20th - Food for Thought - Food Conference in Tel Aviv
• November 25th - BGU Agreement Signing Ceremony
• So you can see that it is a pretty full schedule for the next two months.
• Uri Nusinow left this week for a trip to Brussels as a guest of the EU. He managed an environmental project called Life which was funded by the EU and promoted sustainable solutions for waster water treatment in the Arava. Uri is in Brussels at a final conference of the project.
• I am travelling tonight to Portugal, to the EcoVillage Tamera to meet with their leaders about research cooperation between the Arava Institute and Tamera.
• Clive Lipchin and Shmuel Brenner are back from a very successful trip to Kenya. We hope that this trip will spawn a new initiative for a Center for Sustainable Development in Arid Lands.

Have a nice weekend.

David