The Project Wadi Attir Dryland Ecosystem Restoration Educational Website was launched today during a special event that took place at the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), COP12 meeting, in Ankara, Turkey.
Amran Amarni and Michael Ben-Eli at the UNCCD Convention
The event was organized by Dr. Richard Byron-Cox, the Convention’s Action Program and Capacity Building Officer. Lab Founder Dr. Michael Ben-Eli, BGU researcher Dr. Stefan Leu, and Amran Amrani, Director of Project Wadi Attir’s Visitor, Training and Educational Center, participated in the event. This launch is featured on the UNCCD Capacity Building Marketplace.
The site itself offers comprehensive content about Project Wadi Attir’s Dryland Ecosystem Restoration Initiative, in the context of broader issues related to desertification. It was developed by Dr. Leu, who leads the initiative, and Lee Frankel-Goldwater, The Lab’s Director of Educational Technology. The site will now be accessible by all 193 country signatories to the Convention as well as by the many organizations around the world that follow the Convention’s work.
The launch event cements the nascent collaboration between The Lab and the Convention, which we look forward to expanding in time. According to Dr. Ben-Eli and Dr. Byron-Cox, the collaboration and cooperation will eventually cover such issues as working with indicators, and the promotion of partnerships with other organizations and similar initiatives. Dr. Byron-Cox further underlines that The Lab and its Wadi Attir project will become more and more significant as a successful, practical example of workable approaches to combatting desertification, and to ensuring a more efficacious implementation of the UNCCD.
Dr. Ben-Eli (center) with Amira Oron (left), Israel’s chargé d’affaires in Ankara.