An unlikely trio of scientists and diplomats demonstrate how bird conservation has become a powerful tool for cross-border cooperation amid regional tensions in the Middle East.
Led by Israeli ornithologist Yossi Leshem, former Jordanian General Mansour Abu Rashid, and Swiss biologist Alexandre Roulin, the project Owls for Peace manages to unite stakeholders from Israel, Jordan, and Palestine in a region often defined by political conflict.
“Our goal is to start with conservation and sustainability, and then to bring people together using science”, Roulin says. “This is what we call scientific diplomacy.”
General Mansour Abu Rashid, who helped negotiate the 1994 peace agreement between Jordan and Israel, recounts how the unlikely project began when he met Yossi Leshem at a conference in 2002.
“Professor Yossi Leshem talked about using barn owls as a pesticide control in the fields”, he recalls. This would make sense, he admits, given that Jordan and Israel share around 450 kilometers of land at their common border. “And if we don’t cooperate in environmental issues, I think the two countries will suffer a lot.”
But there was a problem: In Jordan, the barn owl is considered to be bad luck.
Watch the video to hear how the initiators managed to overcome the challenge, making the project so successful that it has expanded to include 13 partner countries – demonstrating how environmental cooperation can build bridges between traditional adversaries.
