Short course: Trees for Arid Lands

Offered by:
International Program for Arid Land Crops
c/o Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
November 4 - 18, 2001

The program of "Trees for Arid Lands" flows from the conviction that trees need to be the prime tool for preventing desertification and poverty in regions where cultivation of annual crops is not reliable because rainfall is frequently insufficient, and/or poorly distributed within a season.

Hence the program has 2 main components: - presentations by the participants about how the projects they are involved with have used trees for sustainable development and/or environmental protection/improvement in their intervention areas - presentations (and field trips) focusing on the role of trees in the Israeli agricultural economy and in afforestation

In addition, a portion of the course will be devoted to learning about the African Market Garden, an integrated production system which combines trees and annual crops in a field irrigated by gravity-fed drip irrigation.

Deadline for applications: August 31, 2001

For further details on intended audience, cost, and scholarships, contact:
IPALAC
c/o Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
POB 653 Beer Sheva, Israel 84105
Tel: 972 8 646 1905/22
Fax: 972 8 647 2984
email: ipalac@bgumail.bgu.ac.il

Energy & GHG Scenario software available free to qualifying organizations

The Stockholm Environment Institute-Boston Center has announced the availability of LEAP2000, a software tool for analyzing energy and greenhouse gas scenarios. Created by SEI-Boston and several leading research institutions (EDRC, ENDA-TM, ETC, and IDEE/Bariloche) with support from the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the software is now available on-line and is free to non-profit and governmental organizations in developing countries.

LEAP2000 includes a new Technology and Environment Database that provides descriptions, technical characteristics, costs and emissions of a wide range of energy technologies. It can be used as a standalone database, or within LEAP2000 to calculate the emissions profiles of energy scenarios.

For more information, contact:

Charlie Heaps and Michael Lazarus
SEI-Boston/Tellus Institute
11 Arlington Street
Boston, MA, 02116-3411, USA
Tel: (617) 266 5400
Fax: (617) 266 8303
Email: leap@tellus.org
Web: http://www.seib.org/

Upcoming conferences of interest

Third International Conference on Land Degradation
Land Degradation: New Trands Towards Global Sustainability
17-21 September 2001
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

This conference is aimed at land and water conservation researchers, educators, policymakers, practitioners and advocates throughout the world. Its intent is to promote both interchange of current information and networking; mid- and post-conference tours will also be available. For more information contact:

Dr. Beata Madari
ICLD3 Conference Secretary
Embrapa Solos
Rua Jardim Botanico, 1024
22460-000 Rio de Janeiro
BRAZIL
Tel: +55 (21) 274-4999
Fax: +55 (21) 274-5291
Email: icld3@cnps.embrapa.br
Web site: http://www.cnps.embrapa.br/ICLD/

AGROENVIRON 2002
3rd International Symposium
26-28 October 2002
Cairo, EGYPT
The purpose of this symposium is to promote scientific interactions and international awareness of agroenvironmental issues. Proposed topics include but are not limited to:

• climate change
• biotechnology
• forestry and rangeland
• desertification and land degradation
• agricultural waste management
• environmental biodiversity

Abstracts are due 30 November 2001.

For more information contact:
Prof. Sami Abdel-Rehman, Symposium General Secretary
National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences (NARSS)
PO Box 1564 Alf-Maskan
23 Joseph Bros Tito St.
El Nozha El Gedida
Cairo, EGYPT
Email: sirahman@intouch.com