Birds of a Feather

Every year farmers in the Jordan Valley lose the majority of their crops to pests. Through regional cooperation between Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli farmers, a solution to the problem has been found in the form of none other than barn owls. In sharing and promoting the use of barn owls and kestrels as biological pest […]

Telling the Story of Auja’s water through the Auja Eco Center

Located in the Jordan Valley, North of Jericho, the municipality of Auja is facing environmental problems which are not unfamiliar to the region. The greatest obstacle in Auja is water scarcity, which is clearly manifested in the diminished flow of the Auja Spring, the main water source of the municipality.

A tour to a unique eco-cultural landscape, around the Palestinian village of Battir

On the 31st of August, a group of forty people participated in a tour jointly arranged by FoEME and the Jerusalem-based NGO Ir Amim, in the Palestinian villages of Walajeh and Battir. The visit was meant to raise awareness on the need to protect a unique cultural and heritage landscape, threatened by the Separation Barrier. Battir […]

Water conference makes for better neighbors

“Water” was the word on everyone’s lips at EcoPeace/Friends of the Earth Middle East’s Good Water Neighbors (GWN) conference staged in Jericho earlier this month. More than 250 representatives from Jordan, Palestine and Israel, along with international experts and scholars, gathered at Jericho’s InterContinental Hotel on September 11 and 12 to hear about the cross […]

Turning roofs green with vegetable gardens

Rooftop gardening is not a new idea: people from ancient Babylon, from the Roman city of Caesarea and many other places took advantage of their roof spaces to grow all kind of plants. This practice is gaining new popularity today, as cities grow and access to land for gardening is limited. Turning roofs green can […]

Waste(not)water for Agriculture

Reclaimed Water is Water for Farms Reclaimed water is wastewater that has been treated to improve its quality to render it usable to irrigate crops. Most of the crops grown in Palestine are rain-fed, which causes significant fluctuations in annual productivity[1]. However, supplementing rain-fed farming with irrigated farming using treated wastewater would greatly stabilize production.

Sealing The Pipes To Save Water In Palestine

To raise awareness about the region’s opportunities to conserve water in Palestine, Israel and Jordan, FoEME is launching campaigns to raise public awareness about important and eco-nomically sensible interventions that can be implemented to save water and increase the water supply to the Jordan River. In Palestine, although most of the population is connected to […]

A Multifaith Journey of Hope to Israel, Palestine and Jordan

From 23rd April 2012 – 3rd May 2012, a unique tour took place in Israel, Palestine and Jordan, organized by Rabbi Frank Dabba Smith, and facilitated by FoEME.  The tour group was comprised of members of Jewish, Islamic and Christian faiths, and focused on visiting sites that are important to all three major monotheistic religions.  […]

Reflections on my internship with FoEME

During the first six months of my student exchange program from Germany I worked on an independent study completed in cooperation with Dr. Fischhendler from the Institute of Geography in the Hebrew University. It was, in fact, Dr. Fischhendler who suggested that I contact FoEME, after highlighting some of the major problems with water distribution and […]

What is Permaculture?

From May 31st to June 15th, a permaculture design course was jointly hosted by The Green Platform (a young initiative that aims to raise environmental awareness in Jordan through visual and performing arts, creative campaigns and cultural events) and a local Jordanian NGO.  One FoEME staff member had the opportunity to participate in this important […]