August 2009 Update

This is the third in a series of project updates that are produced periodically in order to keep our partners, funders, supporters and friends informed about developments in this exciting initiative involving a Bedouin community in the Negev desert in Israel.

The project seeks to develop a model ecological farm in a desert environment, incorporating sustainability principles and leveraging Bedouin agricultural experience with integrated, innovative, green technologies, and a strong commitment to community values.

Since our last update of February 2009, much has been happening and the project continues to develop vigorously on all critical fronts. Over the last few months, the project was officially established as an Agricultural Cooperative; the statutory planning process progressed considerably and project plans have already been accepted for deposition by the Regional Planning Board; all elements of the technology infrastructure, including solar energy generation, compost and biogas production, constructed wetlands and soil enhancement plans are coming into increasingly sharper focus; and work continues on developing a detailed project document including the necessary business plans.

We are already looking ahead, beyond 2009, to actual implementation and hope to launch preparatory site work before the end of this year.

All this is made possible by the generosity of our close knit group of individual donors and by the dedicated effort of over forty individuals who are now engaged in developing the project plans. This latter group, represents unusually diverse  sectors including the Bedouin community; academia; NGOs’; private industry, including individual consultants; and government. The project continues to break new ground and the excitement of all those collaborating in this pioneering undertaking, is often quite palpable.
                                                                                                Michael Ben-Eli 

Development Highlights

• Following an intensive period of discussions and consultations and the adoption of a cooperative model, about which we reported earlier, the office of Alon Shabtai, a legal expert on cooperatives, was retained in order to help refine the structure and develop the by-laws for the cooperative. All the necessary legal documents were submitted to the authorities in April and the formal approvals were received on May 5th, 2009. The first meeting of the founders, of Agricultural Cooperative Wadi Attir, took place on May 18th when the group voted for establishing the necessary management structure and assign key roles. An initial group of 12 founders, among them 3 women, launched this pioneering enterprise – the first ever Bedouin Agricultural cooperative.

  In its mode of functioning, the cooperative will embody the values enshrined in the project’s Declaration of Principles. Economic and social entrepreneurship, personal responsibility, fairness, mutual assistance, transparency, and democratic governance will be its hallmark. As an added institutional innovation we are now in the process of setting up the Wadi Attir Foundation. It will function as the fund raising arm of the cooperative’s non-commercial, education and research activities. At the same time it will act as the trustee for the organization’s fundamental value proposition, ensuring its integrity for years to come.
  

• Over the last few months, members of the project team and professional consultants worked tirelessly on the statutory track, involving all the necessary permits for acquiring and developing the project site. The process was supported by the Marash architectural firm in Beer Sheva, which was hired for the purpose, and the Engineering Department of the Hura Municipal Council. Work during this period focused largely on responding to the many inquiries and questions raised by the various ministries and agencies involved in the process.

• We have taken a somewhat unusual approach in this effort in working directly and very  closely with each of the official bodies involved, so that when plans where ultimately reviewed by the Regional Planning Committee they enjoyed broad base support. On June 29th, plans were formally presented to the committee and were accepted for deposition in record time. The whole process involved a number of milestones as follows:
  

> August, 2008, statutory planning process is launched.

> December 23, 2008: Preliminary plans are presented at a meeting of the

Regional Planning Committee.

> May 17, 2009, plans are presented to Mrs. Alicia Siber, the Chief Regional Planner.

> June 1, 2009, plan is presented for “initial requirements” and is accepted.

> June 15, 2009, process of evaluating the plan is completed.

> June 29, 2009, plan is accepted for deposition.

The estimated date for final deposition has been set to October 1st, with a date for final discussion and approval set for December 1, 2009. We look forward to completing the process and to commencing implementation early next year. The 150 acre site, it should be recalled, is currently on a short (two years) lease to the project, so that some early preparatory work may start even earlier.

• We are very pleased to report that following a series of meetings with Prof. David Faiman, Chairman of the Department of Solar Energy and Environmental Physics, and Director of the National Center for Solar Energy, at BGU, it was decided to utilize the technology developed at the Center for project Wadi Attir. The pioneering electric-thermal hybrid, solar power system developed at BGU is licensed by ZenithSolar, a recently established startup company in Israel. Roy Segev, CEO of the company, has embraced project Wadi Attir and Zenith’s Engineer, Avraham Bechar has been assigned to work with the project team and develop the appropriate solar energy production system for the project site.

• With plans to develop the solar energy system underway, the full range of underlying infrastructure technologies is now coming together as one whole, with various components such as biogas and constructed wetland, compost production, soil enhancement program, solar energy, and irrigation and water recycling, at various states of development.

The project itself is designed to reflect and demonstrate essential  sustainability               principles in its overall approach. This means a commitment to realizing positive economic results, enriching the life and wellbeing of the community, ensuring the highest resource productivity, enhancing local bio-diversity, and preventing adverse impacts on the environment.

The underlying design puts an emphasis on systems integration and a basic concept behind the project is that byproducts of one activity will be available as resources for another activity through an integrated, closed loop system of use, reuse and recycling. The overall scheme is captured in the flow diagram depicted below.

Other Significant Items:

With early drafts coming together for most project components, preliminary estimates of implementation costs have been developed. Total implementation cost (which is assumed to be spread in stages, over three to four years), is estimated at approximately US$4.5 million as follows:

Live Stock and Dairy Operation
Including three animal pens, milking center,
Dairy plant, hay barn, machinery and equipment
Quarantine facility, and livestock
Sub Total: -- $ 1.3M

Medicinal Plans and Indigenous Vegetables:
Storage and drying facilities, production center,
Equipment shed, tools and mechanical equipment,
Seed bank and indigenous vegetables facility
Sub Total: -- $ 0.4M

Visitor’s Center:
Modular three wing facility, including class rooms,
Lecture and exhibition hall, laboratories, entrance hall,
Restaurant, gift shop, and offices
Sub Total: -- $ 0.8M

Technology Infrastructure and Site Work:
Solar energy system, irrigation system, bio gas and
Waste treatment system, compost production, site work
and land improvement, fencing, soil enhancement and
Planting
Sub Total: -- $ 1M

Planning Fees, Taxes and Contingency:
Sub Total: -- $ 1M

Total estimated implementation costs: $ 4.5M

• Accountant Elhanan Yair, with Dr. Miki Malul and Dr. Mossi Rosenboim, BGU economists, are working with the project team on developing the necessary business plans. They are focusing on the main productive components (meat, dairy products and products derived from medicinal plants) singly, and as a whole, while trying to incorporate essential values of the non-commercial project components.

• Ali Alhawashle, member of the project team responsible for the medicinal plants operation, has been busy collecting and experimenting with various species of medicinal plants that will be grown on the site. A few thousand saplings are already receiving diligent care at the project nursery, as Ali continues to try out best cultivation practices with seeds and shoots of wild desert plants.

• We have been working with graphic designer Shai Zauderer to produce a high quality brochure providing a comprehensive description of the project. A Hebrew version should be ready by end of August with an English document to follow soon thereafter.

• Over forty people gathered for a joyful, traditional Bedouin dinner to celebrate acceptance of project plans for deposition. The event took place at Sphinat Hamidbar, a Bedouin run facility just south of Beer Sheva. Participants at the dinner included individuals from the Bedouin community, from NGOs, private industry and government, reflecting beautifully the number and diversity of people now collaborating to making project Wadi Attir a reality.

• Since the project was launched, we have been deliberate in limiting public exposure, but requests to present this initiative to different audiences are mounting rapidly. We plan to respond to these selectively until the project officially breaks ground.

Previous and planned presentations include the following: In March, Mohammed Alnabari and Michael Ben-Eli presented the project to a group of friends and current funders at the Arnow family offices in New York; In April, the project was presented at the General Assembly of the Mediterranean Network of Engineering Schools – Réseau Méditeranéen des Ecoles d’Ingénieurs (RMEI), in Rome; In May, a presentation took place at the house of Lillian Ben-Zion, in New York; and in June a presentation was delivered at EARTH University in Costa Rica;

Invited presentations are now scheduled for the Rotary Club in Haifa, Israel, in August; for the Ministerial Session of the Conference Of the Parties (COP) of the Global Convention for Combating Desertification, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in September; at the Annual National Conference of the Jewish National Fund, in Philadelphia, in October; and at the Bioneers Conference, in Providence, Rhode Island, during the same month. Other venues are being discussed as well.

Funding

We are happy to welcome Diane Archer, Ron Guttman and Lawrence Benenson to the group of our funders mobilized by Robert Arnow. With their combined, new contributions we have now reached our funding goal for the current phase of the project.

Launching project Wadi Attir and supporting its first planning phase has been made possible by generous contributions from the following individuals:

Diane Archer                                               
Joan & Robert Arnow                                  
Kathi & Peter Arnow                                   
Elyse & Joshua Arnow                                 
Ruth Arnow                                                 
Michael Ben-Eli                                            
Lawrence Benenson                                    
Martin Blackman                                         
Joanna Corrigan                                              
Ron Guttman
Tony Leichter
Murray Nathan & Rita Calderon  
Susan & Randy Richardson
Joe Rosenblatt
The Robert Sillins Family Foundation
Michael Sonnenfeldt
Michael Weinstein
Bill Wiener
Roy Zuckerberg                                    

We have recently launched a new fund raising drive to address medium and long term needs of the project. Efforts are proceeding along a number of tracks as we plan to seek support from diverse sources including private individuals, institutional partners, foundations, multilateral, and government sources.

For information about making tax deductible contributions in support of project Wadi Attir, please contact Joshua Arnow at info@sustainabilitylabs.org

 

  May 18, 2009, first meeting of founding members of the Cooperative

 

At a periodic meeting of the project’s Advisory Group.

 

         Prospecting for medicinal plants            in the desert.

 

              Ali Alhawashle examining a                 rare medicinal plant.

 

Reviewing irrigation plans with engineer Dani Columbus (right) of Netafim.

 

Presenting project Wadi Attir to Mrs. Alicia     Siber Chief Regional Planner,  Ministry        of the  Interior.

 

BGU’s Amit Gross near a new, pilot methane production unit. 

 

Amit Gross explaining how the unit works.

 

Meeting with Prof. David Faiman (left), director of The National Center for Solar Energy at BGU.

 

BGU’s doctoral candidate Adi Inbar, discussing project evaluation plans.

 

Reviewing a CPV solar collector with ZenithSolar CEO, Roy Segev (center).

 

ZenithSolar collectors, of the type envisioned for Project Wadi Attir.

 

             Presentation to the  Regional            Planning Committee. 

 

              The Committee debating               acceptance of the plans.

A dinner celebrating acceptance of project for deposition.

 

Sharing a light moment at the dinner. Yonas Alnabari (left) addressing the group.

Ibrahim Al Atrash, member of the project’s Steering Committee, at the dinner.

 

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Project Wadi Attir is a joint initiative of the Hura Municipal Council and
the Sustainability Laboratory.

 

Participating partners include the Blaustein Institute for Desert Research of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, (BGU); the Jewish National Fund (JNF); and the Negev Institute for Peace and Development Strategies, (NISPED). Other supporting organizations include the Arab-Jewish Center for Equality, Empowerment and Cooperation (AJEEC); Keren Kayemet L’Israel (KKL); Kibbutz Kramim; AMAL Educational Network; NETAFIM; ZenithSolar; and the Negev Regional Center for Research and Development for the Bedouins.