Study Tour: Environmental Sustainability in the Middle East 2015
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Environmental issues know no boundaries - these problems transcend national borders and the solution to them lies in a collaborative approach to the management of shared natural resources. During the 5th-17th of June, a joint group of students from the Porter School of Environmental Studies and from Columbia University went on a tour of Jordan and Israel to learn about how these two countries are tackling environmental sustainability.
During this tour, the students learnt about how political conflicts create, sustain and escalate environmental problems, as well as the role the environment can play in future negotiations toward constructive and peaceful outcomes. The tour is a cooperative effort between Columbia University’s Earth Institute and the Porter School of Environmental Studies and the Center for Innovation in Transportation at TAU.
First piloted in 2013, this tour was an opportunity to learn about cross-border environmental and transportation aspects of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict and the role of the environment in creating regional collaboration. The study tour includedfield visits, lectures and meetings with representatives from academia, government, NGOs and local community members.
Read about some of the tour participants' experiences:
Transboundary sustainability Issues in the Middle East: a personal tour summary
By Maxim Fuchs, Tel-Aviv University, July 4, 2015
The definition of hope according to the dictionary: "To want something to happen or be true and think that it could happen or be true".
I'd like to begin this summary with my conclusion: the most powerful feeling I experienced while participating in this tour is hope.
While I could only take part in the second half of the program (in Israel), I can imagine what a huge impact the whole two week program had on all the other participants and surely would have had on me as well.
From the moment I had joined the group it took less than two hours before I had the opportunity to participate in the first in- depth conversation about the topics addressed during the lectures.
This, in my opinion is a demonstration of the quality of the students and staff who took part in this tour.The urge to learn and understand, ask questions and add their own opinions and most importantly – listen, are only some of the talents and qualities that the tour's participants shared.
It was a great honor for me to meet people who live in different conflict zones, whether in the south of Israel near the Jordanian border, in the Negev close to the Green- Line, or in Jerusalem and hear lectures given by them. These people dedicate their lives to fixing and changing the current reality.
If I had to quote two sentences said during the tour that had the greatest influence on me these would be:
“I believe you need to find the need of the local community and not only concentrate on what they are not doing right”.
“I care about the future generations and not what belonged to whom in the past”
Both of them were said during our visit in East-Jerusalem. Both of them prove to me that there is hope for a better future, we only have to concentrate on solving problems in an upbuilding way. Solving the environmental cross- border conflicts and problems is the best base for this. Our problems are shared with our neighbors and so their solution should also be a shared one. Not solvingthese problems will negatively affect both sides in this local conflict and probably in any otherconflicts further away as well.
So once again, the most powerful feeling I experienced while participating in this tour is hope. I could only recommend it to anyone who will have the opportunity to take part in this tour in the future.
Reflections on our Tour: Environmental Sustainability in the Middle East
By Torsten Frey, The International MA Program in Environmental Studies
Our study trip through Jordan and Israel has been a most impressive and mesmerizing experience. The tour was challenging on an intellectual, an emotional and on a physical level. The challenge but also the strong positive impressions were primarily created through the bilateral experience of formal and informal learning.
On the one hand we were following the schedule, which had been developed by the Porter School of Environmental Studies in collaboration with the Earth Institute of Columbia University in New York. Every day we travelled by bus to get in touch with impressive organizations and individuals and thereby were familiarized with the environmental as well as the political challenges the region is facing. We got to meet groups and leaders from the Jordanian, Israeli and Palestinian side and from the entire width of political spectrums. Every encounter added new perspectives and gave us additional insights. On the other hand, our learning experience was strongly driven by mutual exchange within the group. Countless intense discussions during the bus rides and while enjoying drinks in the evening, formed and questioned our opinions, provided us with better understanding and shaped us into a group with extremely high solidarity and coherence. Debates could be sparked and aided from very different perspectives backgrounds, from Environmental Engineering and Environmental Studies to Conflict Management. When the tour started here in Tel Aviv, I did not expect how much of a bonding experience it would be and what a strong sense of belonging would be developed among the participants.
After two weeks of such intensity it is difficult to point out the highlights of the tour. An outstanding surprise was the EcoPark we visited in Jordan. In a country in which the environmental movement is not as strong as I am used from my European origin, it was impressive to see how the organizers of the park established a protected area in which travel groups and school classes can be educated. On top of that the all employees in the park are Bedouin, giving the project a meaningful and important social component. Another surprise was the organization which is best translated to “The movement of the Future of the Western Negev” in Kibbutz Bror Hail. These people, who live so close to the Gaza strip, that the physical threat is more engrained in their daily life than elsewhere in Israel, are exploring policy options for resolving the conflict and securing the well-being in their community that go far beyond what is discussed in the Knesset and the mainstream media.
On top of all the expert opinions and encouraging people we met along our way, many of the students participating in the tour also prepared presentations in order to provide more background on selected topics. These included a tour through our Porter building, sustainability in the fashion business and how bird conservation can benefit in the agricultural sector. Most interesting for me personally, was a small introduction on basics of conflict resolution that had been prepared by the students of Columbia University. These definitely sparked my interest in the matter and encouraged me to expose myself more to the field. Overall, the tour left a strong impression with me. Many of my new friends remarked that the experience will have an enduring impact on their lives and their career development. I can definitely say that the same is true for me.