Cleaner production practices and applications have gained a lot of momentum in the Arab World lately as a technologically effective and economically affordable method for reducing pollution and enhancing effeciency in resource use. Cleaner production applications in Jordan have been mainstreamed and coordinated by the Cleaner Production programme implementing by the Royal Scientific Society (RSS)... [read more]

Source: Science Devnet   Wagdy Sawahel   (CAIRO) Scientists and policy makers have demanded that Arab states improve their national science and technology strategies by cooperating more closely with regional science academies. They made the call at a conference in Alexandria, Egypt that ended yesterday (15 November) to discuss how to boost research and development in the Arab world. They... [read more]

Source: The Jordan Times   By Mahmoud Al Abed  AMMAN —  Jordan has the potential to trade its abundance of sun for cutting edge European solar energy technology, according to a senior official. Secretary General of the Higher Council for Science and Technology, Khalid Shraideh, told reporters at a press conference late last week that the problem of storing solar power has now been solved... [read more]

The UNDP have launched a new and brilliant website based on the UNDP's water knowledge fair featuring some very interesting multimedia products on sustainable water management. http://www.waterfair.org/index.spring  The Knowledge base can be browsed by country where Jordan, Egypt and Morocco are currently listed with short films and other knowledge products available online. The water fair can... [read more]

This is a call for contribution issued by IUCN's Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy for the 15th issue of its magnificant magazine "Policy Matters". I hope that the coming issue will contain some analytical examples from the Arab World.   Policy Matters (PM) is a periodic publication of the World Conservation Union’s (IUCN) Commission on Environmental, Economic, and Social... [read more]

The United Nations Development Programme has recently published its landmark annual report "Human Development Report" for the year 2006. This year's report has a clear environmental focus as it tackles the issues of water and sanitation and their relation to poverty. The report entitled "Beyond Scarcity: Power, Poverty and the Global Water Crises" has published a wide array of its resources on the... [read more]

The Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE)  http://www.oaresciences.org/en/  is a new international public-private consortium coordinated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Yale University, and leading science and technology publishers, enables developing countries to gain free access to one of the world's largest collections of environmental science literature... [read more]

Press Release from UNEP:   The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), through its GEMS/Water Programme, is launching a new capability to its scientific resource, GEMStat, by making it geospatially referenced to Google Earth.  GEMStat provides environmental water quality data and information that is scientifically credible, accessible and interoperable. GEMStat’s website at http://www.gemstat... [read more]

By Bushra Juhi The Associated Press BAGHDAD — For 6,000 years, the river that flows through the heart of Baghdad nurtured the people who live along its banks — providing water, food, transport and recreation. But three years of war, plus pollution and politics, have transformed the storied Tigris into a stagnant sewer — and increasingly, into a graveyard for the victims of civil conflict. Some see... [read more]

Call for Papers from Medwet   Within the framework of a regional workshop on Water for Sustainable Development, organised jointly by the UNEP - Mediterranean Action Plan, Blue Plan Regional Activity Center and MedWet – the Mediterranean Wetlands Initiative of the Ramsar Convention, scheduled to take place in Zaragoza  March 2007, Spain we invite you to submit papers and disseminate this call... [read more]

The United Nations Environment programme (UNEP) has issued a press release with the initial results of its facts finding mission to Lebanon indicating that no traces for depeleted Uraniaum were found in the country. The press release contains statements attributed to UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner   NAIROBI, 7 November, 2006 – The fieldwork of the post conflict environmental assessment... [read more]

Despite the turmoil of occupation, war and sectarian conflict Iraq has managed to find time and resources to conduct its first post-war national biodiversity survey. This survey was conducted after a partnership was established between Nature Iraq and Birdlife Internationa. Two MOUs have been implemented to facilitate project engagement to initiate marsh bird, wildlife and habitat condition surveys... [read more]

Source: Resources for the Future   This is the first comprehensive, multi-disciplinary book to address water policy in Jordan. Edited by Munther Haddadin the former Minister of Water and Irrigation of Jordan, with contributions by other prominent Jordanian and international water professionals, this volume covers such areas as the population-water resources equation in Jordan; institutional... [read more]

The comprehensive assessment on water management in agriculture is being finalised and the book "water for food, water for life: the comprehensive assessment" will be available at the end of the year. The first in a series issue briefs that summarise the key messages coming out from individual chapters is now available here. The first issue brief is about agriculture and ecosystems and entitled 'Reaping... [read more]

This policy brief has been prepared by Mr Theib Oweis who is the director of the Management of Scarce Water Resources and Mitigation of Drought research programme at the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), in Aleppo, Syria.   The summary of the policy brief states that "water scarcity and drought affect over one billion people in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid... [read more]

The World Wide Fund (WWF) has published its landmark annual report on the state of the World's Ecosystems named "the Living Planet Report 2006". The report describes the changing state of global biodiversity and the pressure on the biosphere arising from human consumption of natural resources. It is built around two indicators: the Living Planet Index, which reflects the health of the... [read more]

The IDRC has published a new book entitled "People, Land and Water: Participatory Development Communication (PDC) for Natural Resource Management" which contains a number of case studies from Asia and Africa on communication for sustainable development. This book presents conceptual and methodological issues related to the use of PDC to facilitate participation amongst stakeholders in a variety... [read more]

During last year I had the pleasure and honor to oversee the final stages of developing the National Action programme to Combat Desertification in Jordan as an acting project manager and editor of the final document. Now, the NAP for Jordan is available online from the website of the UNDP country office that provided the technical backstopping and financial support of the production of the action... [read more]

In 2005 I participated in a regional research project supported by the Heinrich Boell Foundation- Middle East office to develop a comparative study on the application of the UN Right to Water concept in four Arab countries; Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine. Each country study aims to identify the scale of knowledge of and commitment to the UN concept in the region and is meant to identify the... [read more]

Deadline: Nov 30th 2006   IDRC’s Rural Poverty and Environment (RPE) program invites concept notes for research projects that will enhance good governance, equitable access to and sustainable management of common pool resources. Concepts notes should: focus on a specific geographic area (e.g. a region, transborder area, national park and surroundings, administrative unit such as a province,... [read more]

The IDRC has published on its website a set of eight case studies from different MENA countries on the linkages between rural poverty and environment. The case studies are written in journalistic style by professional writers in the regions. Topics covered include the African Highland Initiative; transboundary water research in the Middle East; Isang Bagsak (participatory development communication);... [read more]

The Euro-Med Participatory Water Resources Scenarios (EMPOWERS) project has recently publish a booklet entitled "Recommendations for Policy and Practice. This brochure presents a package of recommendations for policy and practice on improved local water governance in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).The recommendations were developed by 68 practitioners, researchers and policy makers representing... [read more]

The Oxford business group has published a new article within its online political and economic briefings series which has focused on the dire water situation in Jordan. This is the full text of the article.   Through direct government initiatives and with the assistance of international agencies, Jordan has set in motion a number of projects to maximise its existing water resources, develop... [read more]

Source: Middle East Times   Stefan Nicola UPI Energy Correspondent November 1, 2006 BERLIN -- Deserts in the Middle East and North Africa can help meet Europe's and the region's growing electricity demand, according to two German research reports. Some may say that the deserts are areas that do not yield any benefits to humanity - but that is not quite true; the solar rays that burn all... [read more]

Source: The Daily Star    Anne Chaon Agence France Presse OUZAI: One month of Israeli bombardment during the war in Lebanon this summer created millions of ton of rubble, adding to the ecological nightmare of a country that has suffered a succession of conflicts. Even in normal times the main north-south coastal road was a handy dumping ground for rubbish, but now a dump of spectacular... [read more]

Nature, the World's leading scientific magazine has published a very interesting profile in its latest issue about Science and Islam. The essays and opinions in this profile provide  alot of challenges and issues to discuss in the Muslim World, where science has always been at the lower levels of priority. You can take a look at all the contents of the profile here http://www.nature.com/news/specials/islamandscience/index... [read more]