Israeli, Palestinian scholars on campus to examine their region's environmental problems

The workshop will jumpstart the Middle East Environmental Futures project, a three-year program designed to strengthen environmental policy decision making in the region.

by Mary Jo Curtis

News from the Middle East most often carries headlines about conflict and strife, but a group of international scholars gathering at Brown this week hopes to generate headlines about another pressing issue in the region: the state of the environment.

The Watson Institute for International Studies is hosting some 35 scholars -- most from Israel and Palestine -- for a workshop that will jumpstart the Middle East Environmental Futures project, a three-year program designed to strengthen environmental policy decision making in the region. Together they'll develop a standard process for research and policy analysis that will consider both the existing quality of the environment in the Middle East and the desires of the region's population groups.

Most importantly, say its organizers, the project will be cooperatively researched and managed by Palestinian and Israeli scientists -- some of whom may put themselves at personal risk by collaborating with a political foe. One participant, eminent Palestinian political scientist Khalil Shikaki, can readily testify to the potential volatility of even noncollaborative academic efforts; he was recently attacked and pelted with eggs in his office at the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research by rioters angered by the findings of a survey he'd conducted of Palestinian refugees.

Despite the sensitivity of the situation, Jeff Albert, a lecturer in environmental sciences and one of the project organizers, says the interdisciplinary group is excited at the prospect of integrating their work in the social and natural sciences to generate "meaningful research -- that is, research that has legs." The scholars are tackling such issues as land and water management, open space and biodiversity, population growth and sprawl, and pollution-based risks to human health as they develop a broad set of policy recommendations. In the process, they'll generate hard data on the current status of the environment and consider how people in the region feel about environmental problems -- all in the context of the potential political, economic and demographic scenarios for the Middle East.

"We will help define what people think the region's environment looks like and, given the current trends, what we can expect it to look like in the future," said principal investigator Steven P. Hamburg, the Ittleson Associate Professor of Environmental Studies and director of the Watson's Global Environment program. "We hope to accurately portray the environmental quality of life of diverse communities, be they rural or urban, Jewish or Arab, farm or refugee camp, religious or secular.

"By integrating the natural and physical sciences with political, cultural and economic realities of the region, we can produce policy-relevant publications that will bring expert knowledge to community-level concerns," Hamburg added.

The project is being coordinated by Hamburg, Albert and Luce Fellow Daniel Orenstein, all at Brown; Khaldoun Rishmawi from the Applied Research Institute, Jerusalem; Stuart Schoenfeld, York University; Samer Alatout, University of Wisconsin, Madison; Yaakov Garb, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and David Brooks, Friends of the Earth, Canada. It was developed in cooperation with York University and with the participation of researchers from the Applied Research Institute, Jerusalem; Arava Institute for Environmental Studies; Heschel Center for Environmental Learning and Leadership; Hebrew University of Jerusalem; the University of Haifa; University of Vermont; and the Rural Center for Sustainable Development, Palestine.

Project findings will be integrated into policy-relevant documents and published in English, Hebrew, and Arabic for presentation to regional policymakers, community organizations and the media.