The rewilding project bringing back prehistoric bovines
BBC (13/3/2024) On a cold, misty morning, a herd of dun-coloured Sorraia horses, an endangered local breed, graze on grass and small shrubs, their short and stocky bodies enveloped in the mist by the Côa river in the mountains of northeastern Portugal. As the sun rises and the mist starts to dissipate, it unveils the […]
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The enduring legacy of Lebanon’s beloved cedar tree
THE NATIONAL (19/5/2023) Draped with snow, the ancient cedars on the mountain slopes of northern Lebanon spread their evergreen branches like arms welcoming visitors. On Mount Makmel, the country’s oldest cedar grove towers over Wadi Qadisha, the “Holy Valley”, where monasteries carved into cliffs for centuries were a place of refuge and meditation. Known locally as Arz […]
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From wastelands to wetlands: rehabilitating Wadi Gaza
EURONEWS (17/4/2023) Muzaraq “Abu Salman” Arash remembers a time when fish swam in Gaza’s wetlands and thousands of migrating birds soared above him every spring and autumn. Water used to stream down the Hebron hills in the West Bank and wind through the Naqab desert, filling the coastal wetlands of central Gaza before reaching the Mediterranean Sea. […]
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Preserving heat-adapted seeds to feed a warming world
MONGABAY (20/9/2022) Sitting cross-legged in the summer sun, Fatima collects seedpods from fava beans in Terbol, a quiet village surrounded by cypress trees and vineyards in the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon. “It’s my first day here,” she says as she smiles shyly, glancing over the hills she had to cross with her family to flee […]
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In Jordan, a quest for the country’s resilient national flower
WASHINGTON POST (22/4/2022) Sitting beneath the branches of an ancient oak on a windswept hill in Jordan’s highlands during the first week of spring, I’m surrounded by a dazzling array of wildflowers. Purple anemones, red poppies, pink cyclamen, yellow and orange daisies. But one elegant flower stands out in the midst of all the bright […]
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Jordan scrambles to save rare Red Sea corals
MONGABAY (14/2/2022) Dozens of tiny, dazzlingly colorful fish swim around a maze of layer upon layer of corals. When divers approach, they hide near a dome-shaped colony. In the clear, warm waters of Aqaba, clownfish, butterflyfish and angelfish swim next to a military tank deliberately sunk in the 1990s, now one of several wrecks that […]
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Could Aqaba’s heat-resilient corals help restore the world’s dying reefs?
DEUTSCHE WELLE (17/1/2022) Beneath the warm, crystal-clear waters of the Gulf of Aqaba at the northern tip of the Red Sea, lies a bustling city of colorful corals. At sunrise, fish emerge from their coral shelters, joining eels, turtles and octopuses to swim through these teeming waters. This vibrant scene is untouched by the mass […]
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