| May 2008 |
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Friends of the Earth Middle East is pleased to invite the public to attend  presentations of design scenarios for the proposed Jordan River Peace Park. The designs will result from an international architectural design workshop organized by FoEME and led by Yale University with the participation of architectural teams from Israel, Jordan and Palestine. The public presentations will also present the recommendations of the pre-feasibility study and business plan for the proposed Jordan River Peace Park.
The presentations will take place on May 15 at the Wild Jordan Center in Amman 17:00-20:00 and on May 19 at the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem from 13:00-17:00. To register for either of these events, please visit our website's Events page.
The presentations will introduce to the public the exciting plans to establish a cross-border peace park in the areas of the Three Bridges at Gesher, Naharayim, Bakoora and the Peace Island. For more information on our work to establish the Jordan River Peace Park please visit our website. For recent media coverage concerning the proposed park click here.
FoEME's work in this area is sponsored by the British Embassy in Tel-Aviv, GreenCross France and the Blaustein Foundation. | |
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 This month, the Jordanian-led pre-feasibility study team for the proposed Jordan River Peace Park toured the Israeli side of the proposed park, including the areas of Naharayim and the "Three Bridges." The team also participated in a guided tour of the Agmon Hula bird sanctuary to gain insights into the tourism dividends of nature rehabilitation and sustainable tourism infrastructure development as illustrated by the Hula Reserve's re-flooded areas. The results of the pre-feasibility study will be presented next month in Amman and Jerusalem along with the architectural design scenarios for the Park (see above).
For more information on our work to establish the Jordan River Peace Park please visit our website.
The pre-feasibility study also is being undertaken with the support of the British Embassy in Tel-Aviv, GreenCross France and the Blaustein Foundation. | |
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This month FoEME completed the construction of eleven rainwater  harvesting systems in FoEME's Good Water Neighbors (GWN) communities. The systems are part of an educational project in which students from Israel, Jordan and Palestine capture rain water and use it to flush toilets and irrigate the school grounds. The systems are monitored and the data will subsequently be published by the students on FoEME's website in three languages, so the students can compare their findings.
Support for the construction of rain harvesting systems is provided by Green Cross France. | |
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FoEME is pleased to announce that the Palestinian GWN community of Auja  will begin building an environmental education center with the support of the Finnish and Australian Embassies in Tel Aviv. The center will focus on enhancing environmental awareness and the need to rehabilitate the nearby Auja stream and Jordan River. Tens of thousands of Palestinian schoolchildren and their teachers visit this stream every year. | |
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In the Jordanian GWN community of Tabket Fahal, the Jordan Valley  Authority extended the area of the community park that FoEME is developing to include an unused building. Similar to the environmental center in Auja, FoEME plans to convert this building into an environmental education center focusing on the need to rehabilitate the nearby Ziglab stream and Jordan River, with the support of the Australian Embassy in Amman.
To learn more about the Good Water Neighbors program please visit our website. To read recent press coverage please click here.
The GWN Project is jointly funded by the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund and the USAID Conflict Management and Mitigation Program. | |
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The tri-lateral Promoting dialogue and cultural Understanding of our Shared  Heritage Project (PUSH) is proud to announce the release of Our Shared Heritage: An Anthology of the Region's Shared Natural and Cultural Heritage. This unique publication, released in a single Arabic, Hebrew and English format, provides a comprehensive review of the large variety of shared natural and cultural heritage in Jordan, the Palestinian Territories and Israel.
The full book is available here in pdf format. The PUSH project partners Al Quds University, Bezalel Academy for Arts and Design and the Jordan Society for Sustainable Development and is sponsored by the European Union's Partnership for Peace Programme with additional support provided by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Beracha Foundation. For more information please visit www.pushproject.org. | |
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For the "Pro-Aquifer" project, FoEME and the House of Water and  Environment have completed their second parallel training course for municipal staff on sewage treatment technologies and management techniques. Two insightful, joint Israeli-Palestinian tours of sewage treatment facilities were conducted as part of these courses.
To learn more about the Pro-Aquifer project please visit our website.
The Pro-Aquifer project is jointly sponsored by the European Union's LIFE program and Green Cross France. | |
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