|
Scientists
from many countries share data and techniques.
By Donna
Gordon Blankinship
For the past
12 years, the main goal of the International Arid Lands
Consortium (IALC) has been to bring together scientists
from the United States and the Middle East to work on
issues concerning development, management, and restoration
or reclamation of arid and semiarid land worldwide.
But every project IALC funds has an interesting side
effect—building bridges for peace.
 |
| Before |
 |
| After |
"This
is a complex consortium that does some very good things
with not a lot of money. It's promoting collaborations
that probably would not occur, and it's also promoting
some very good science," explains Jeff Dawson,
University of Illinois professor with the Department
of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences.
Many IALC
research and demonstration projects focus on issues
concerning erosion control—from Bedouin grazing
studies in Israel to no-till projects in South Dakota.
The scientists involved in the organization say American
and foreign researchers are learning from each other
and developing some solutions that also can be applied
to similar problems in places like Africa and Afghanistan.
The consortium was authorized by US Congress and funded
by several departments of the US government. It also
receives money and other resources, such as lab access
from the universities and international organizations
involved, and has funded more than 100 projects since
1993, distributing between $1 million and $2 million
a year. The organization began its planning in 1991.
Kennith Foster,
president of IALC and professor and director of the
Office of Arid Land Studies at the University of Arizona,
explains that this organization provides a framework
for cooperation and a place for scientists from Israel,
Jordan, and Egypt to sit around the same table—something
they could not do today in their own countries. The
framework of the organization also strongly encourages
the scientists to work together by requiring that grant
requests meet certain criteria dependent on collaboration.
Foster says
this organization is just one example of how American
universities provide a great deal of informal ambassadorship.
Another example is the way scientists from throughout
the world study each year at American institutions of
higher education to earn their undergraduate and graduate
degrees. Most of these students return to their native
countries and become leaders in both academic and political
fields. Some of these very same researchers now are
working on projects for IALC.
Everyone
in the group speaks English and steers clear of political
discussions, even when two people from opposing countries
sit at the same table. "Our most fervent discussions
are about who has the best football or basketball teams.
They tend to align themselves with their US university,"
Foster says, adding that the members of the consortium
from Israel, Egypt, and Jordan have become very good
friends and are all on a first-name basis. The meetings
are rotated around, but for security reasons there have
been no meetings in Israel or Jordan for the past three
years, although scientists from those countries still
are able to fly to the US to meet with each other. "The
problems there have not deterred the collaborative research
that is ongoing," Foster reports.
"Patchiness"
and Sustainable Livestock Grazing
One example of international collaboration for IALC
is an ongoing demonstration project in the Israeli desert
that concerns sustainable livestock grazing practices.
The project has many useful applications, including
help for the Bedouin tribes—once nomadic and now
being encouraged to establish permanent settlements
in Israel. Dawson explains that the Bedouins' nomadic
livestock practices tend to cause overgrazing, which
leads to soil erosion and destruction. The IALC demonstration
project will help Bedouins improve their grazing practices
to sustain forage and livestock productivity near their
settlements. Researchers from the Middle East and other
arid and semiarid regions of the world visit this demonstration
site to learn about environmentally sustainable livestock
production.
Dawson explains
that the goal is to figure out the optimal "patchiness"
to allow for water infiltration without contributing
to erosion. Some grazing and human use of the land is
necessary because low disturbance by animals or humans
leads to the forming of a desert crust. The crust "cements"
soil together and prevents erosion, but it can be too
much of a good thing when it becomes impervious to water
and contributes to runoff and erosion problems downstream.
"We're
coming to a general consensus that neither overdisturbance
nor lack of disturbance is the ideal situation. It's
actually a trick of balancing the interaction among
man, the existing life, and the existing climate,"
Dawson says. "The soil is a dynamic entity. You
don't want it all to be erosion-proof because it causes
problems downstream."
When animals
walk through a crusted area, they make holes for germinating,
which leads to patches of greenery and soil development.
Researchers also have studied various kinds of plants
and animals that help create savannas in the desert
and promote soil development and ecological diversity.
Beneficial to scientists, farmers, and government officials
around the world, this research is also helpful to American
scientists who can see what happens in countries that
have been overgrazed for 2,000 years—rather than
for 200 years—and who possibly can find out how
to avoid the same issues in arid parts of the US.
Dawson is
interested in how the grazing patterns change because
of political situations and how this impacts the land.
"I've seen some amazing aerial photographs that
show the border between Egypt and Israel. When Israel
occupied this part of the Sinai, grazing levels went
way down. This whole landscape turned blue because this
crust reformed," he says. "The crust in the
Negev reforms pretty quickly. That shows dramatically—from
a space perspective—what happens with a low level
of disturbance." According to Dawson, moving the
Bedouins into one area instead of allowing them to remain
nomadic led to rapid spreading of the crust, which tends
to encourage big washouts during the rainy season.
"What
we're aiming for is the right level of human-managed
disturbance," Dawson says.
Future IALC
research in this area might look at methods for ecosystem
restoration, the effects of exotic plans and animal
invaders, and impacts of recreation, mining, military
activities, and pollution on arid and semiarid lands.
IALC also has not yet been able to support studies about
cultural-heritage preservation, including archeological
sites and pastoral lifestyles and traditions. Scientists
involved with the organization hope to tackle these
topics in the future.
No-Till
Farming
A major IALC project concerned with soil erosion is
the no-till project conducted by South Dakota State
University. Fred Cholick, dean of the College of Agriculture
and Biological Sciences at South Dakota State, says
the no-till research has already generated practical
applications being put to use in the US, Israel, and
Jordan. The project looked at the decrease in erosion
and the increase in soil health from not tilling. Comparing
land that has been tilled for 200 years in South Dakota
with land that has been tilled for 2,000 years in the
Middle East has been one of the interesting parts of
the project for Cholick.
Farmers are
more interested in the increase in production that has
resulted from the project. For example, in central South
Dakota, soybean production has increased by more than
900% since farmers stopped tilling their land and began
adding more organic matter to the soil and changing
their crop-rotation plans. Cholick says a significant
portion of South Dakota farms are now no-till, and the
farmers find they also are saving on fuel and equipment
costs because they no longer are tilling.
Environmentalists
and fishermen are excited about the positive impact
of this soil buildup on erosion. "We've done
rain simulation experiments, where we simulate a rainfall
of 5 inches in 20 minutes. We had no erosion runoff,"
Cholick says. The next step in the project is to find
out how to make the natural systems even more productive
and increase water-use and crop efficiency.
Cholick,
whose first job after finishing his Ph.D. was with the
US Agency for International Development in Turkey, North
Africa, and South America, says farming and food production
is an ideal subject for scientists to collaborate around
because food, food systems, and natural resources are
subjects that impact every country on every continent.
"The global world we live in today is extremely
small. Global understanding of each other is the foundation
for peace," he says.
Time-Tested
Knowledge Partnering With New Technology
This combination of scientific discovery and political
side effects also motivated the Jewish National Fund
(JNF), a nongovernmental organization responsible for
afforestation and land management in Israel, to be one
of the founding partners of IALC. This 101-year-old
organization is known by the American Jewish community
as "the folks who plant trees in Israel."
They still plant trees today—in part because trees
help prevent desertification by halting soil erosion—but
they actually have a much broader mission, including
many environmental projects.
 |
| Before |
 |
| After |
Israeli environmental
scientist Itshack Moshe is JNF's soil and water conservation
coordinator for its forestry department. In addition
to his work in Israel, he has consulted on water and
soil projects in Chile, Paraguay, Mexico, Turkey, and
Africa.
He describes
his work on IALC projects as combining ancient knowledge
with modern technology. "We are doing what our
forefathers did 2,000 or 3,000 years ago." But
unlike their forefathers, these modern scientists are
sharing what they learn with other countries, including
Jordan and Egypt. Scientists from other parts of the
world, such as Africa, the former Soviet Union, Australia,
and the US, also are coming to Israel to see the demonstration
projects and figure out what they can use at home.
One unique
project that Moshe, formerly a member of the International
Erosion Control Association, talks about involves moving
animal grazing into the forests to help reduce fire
hazards and manage runoff. Another interesting demonstration
takes place at the site of ancient farms being maintained
for historical reasons rather than for growing. At the
same time JNF is preserving the farms, its scientists
are managing runoff and decreasing erosion. "One
of our main goals is for people to come and see how
these things were done 2,000 years ago," Moshe
says. "Generations of farmers lived on these renewable
resources. They had floods every year." But they
dealt with that challenge and managed the land.
Another Israeli
scientist, Omri Bonneh, who is director for the northern
region of the Land Development Authority of JNF, says
the current partnership with American scientists has
its roots in a crisis that occurred about 15 years ago,
when Israel experienced a terrible forest-fire season.
"We looked to the US Forest Service for assistance,
which had [considerable] experience with that issue.
From that point, the relationship developed and has
covered almost every area of forest and land management,"
Bonneh says. "It gave us a unique opportunity to
rely on the professional methodology that has been developed
in the United States, especially forest management and
forest fires." Both JNF and the Forest Service
went on to be two of the founding partners of IALC.
"We
were happy to discover—although the scales between
Israel and the United States are completely different—the
problems that we have to deal with are very similar,"
Bonneh says. "When you give a solution to a problem
in Israel, it can also be applicable to a problem in
the United States. Of the good results is the production
of techniques that can be used in any other country
that deals with the same problems." The forestry
work involves both fire prevention and land rehabilitation,
as well as cross-training of foresters. The Forest Service
and JNF together have researched invasive species, including
plants and insects, range management, and tree improvement,
among other topics.
This partnership
has even allowed Israeli scientists to work with Palestinian
researchers, although technically their people are at
war. "Sometimes there are political barriers. One
of the ways to overcome such barriers is to get down
to the professional issues and exchange ideas, views,
and knowledge and communicate via the Internet,"
Bonneh adds.
Rehabilitating
Hula Valley
JNF's environmental work in Israel, which does
not all involve IALC, has included wetlands restoration
in the Hula Valley in northeastern Israel. Until the
1950s, the valley contained one of the largest and most
diverse wetlands in the Middle East. After the establishment
of Israel in 1948, JNF drained the papyrus swamps and
a lake to reclaim peat lands for agriculture use. Agriculture
flourished for 40 years in the valley—but at the
expense of growing environmental problems, such as increased
nitrate and phosphate pollution from fertilizers flowing
into the Sea of Galilee, which provides much of the
region's drinking and irrigation water, and increased
peat-soil erosion by wind, subsidence, oxidation, and
spontaneous subterranean peat fires. The result was
a loss of valuable topsoil and eventual degradation
of agricultural lands.
In the 1990s,
JNF began rehabilitating the Hula peat lands by creating
a new water body on the peat soils, constructing a canal
network, and installing a barrier across the valley
to prevent nutrient-rich peat waters from flowing into
and contaminating the Sea of Galilee. A new phase of
the Hula restoration project began in 2002, with the
goal of finding an equilibrium among agriculture, ecology,
and public use, such as walking and biking trails and
bird observation points. JNF also is building a visitor
center, which will serve an educational function.
Outreach
and Other Projects
Among IALC's other projects are several educational
and outreach efforts, including what it calls "Peace
Fellowships" that allow students from the US to
study in the Middle East and brings students from that
region to the US. There are also short courses offered
to Middle Eastern scientists, such as a one-year technical
course led by a professor at the University of Arizona
on "Mitigating Risks to Conservation and Sustainable
Use of Water and Other Natural Resources." The
course was taught in Amman, Jordan, and Tel Aviv, Israel,
for trainees from Jordan, the Palestinian Environmental
Authority, and Israel. It concentrated on water resource
management, sustainable agriculture, and climatic study.
Researchers
from New Mexico State University and Bar-Ilan University
in Israel are in the middle of an IALC study on the
role of animals in the persistence of decertified ecosystems.
Their work focuses on the impact of rodents and rabbits
in helping restore degraded ecosystems. The scientists
also are looking at impact on different types of grasses
and how cutting back the grasses and shrubs contributes
to restoration of the ecosystem. They are doing their
investigations in New Mexico but hope to discover how
their findings will translate in other similar lands.
Another current
IALC study looks at using recycled wastewater for irrigation
water in semiarid and arid zones, such as the southwestern
US and Israel. This study is being led by researchers
at the University of Arizona and the Hebrew University
of Jerusalem. Their theory is that using treated wastewater
helps nourish the soil by increasing organic matter
over the long term. Previous studies have indicated
that the concentration of dissolved organic matter in
the wastewater plays an important role in the absorption
of pesticides in soils; however, the researchers want
to find out what the precise role of the organic matter
is in this interaction and how exactly they interact.
One way IALC
fulfills its educational mission is by setting up Web
sites to help scientists share information. One such
site focuses on management of semiarid watersheds and
was completed by the University of Arizona in 2000.
The Web site, which can be accessed at http://ag.arizona.edu/OALS/watershed/index.html,
offers in-depth information and a training course in
watershed management. The Web site includes a search
function, access to research studies data, a library
of images, a discussion of Current Issue in watershed
management, and links to related resources on the Internet.
"Transferring
needed technology to arid and semiarid land managers
and local landowners will remain a priority of IALC,"
report leaders of the organization in a 10-year review
of its work, which was published in November 2001 by
the US Department of Agriculture. To get a copy of this
report, which outlines many more projects than those
discussed in this article, call 970/498-1392, e-mail
rschneider@fs.fed.us, or fax 970/498-1396.
For more
information about the IALC and its work, visit the organization's
Web site, http://ag.arizona.edu/OALS/IALC/Home.html.
Donna
Gordon Blankinship is an author working in Seattle,
WA.
EC
- March/April 2004
|
