The Environmental Field Center in Palestine targets a wide audience including school groups, teachers, and researchers, who will conduct experiments in the Environmental Center.

This center will solve a lot of problems for Palestinian schools and teachers, because they will find in the center a place to conduct activities and a good site for summer camps.

First Environmental Summer Camp

With a grant from the Global Environmental Facilities, the Academy has organized the first Environmental Summer Camp from 4 to 7 July 2004, with 22 students participating from both private and governmental schools from Ramallah and the Jericho district.

Many environmental activities were carried out under the supervision of counselors, who were trained to conduct such activities.

During the last day of the camp, a workshop was help at the Committee for the Production of Tourism in the Governate of Jericho. Also the other camp activities were held there. In the workshop, four different environmental issues were discussed: Paper Recycling, Air Pollution, solid Waste Treatment, and Non-Desertification.

Second Environmental Summer Camp

PALAST organized the second environmental summer camp in Jericho with a grant from the Global Environmental Facilities (GEF). The following organizations participated in the camp: Roads and Environment Safety Center - RESC, Palestinian Forum for Media and Youth Mobilization - PYALARA, a group of the Volunteer Committee of Palestinian Red Crescent Society in addition to a number of school students from Jericho and the Ramallah area.

The camp took place from 24 to 26 June 2005 at the site of the Environmental Field Center. The beneficiaries were exposed to a broad range of activities in the field of geology, geography, biodiversity and environmental awareness. The pupils also assisted in setting up the tents at the center and helped planting plants, such as Christs’ Thorn and Shrubby Saltbush in the garden of the center.

Besides team-building and ice-breaking, activities mainly aimed at raising the participating students’ environmental awareness through:

• An introduction about the Environmental Field Center, its importance and objectives;

• A lecture about the geology, climate and biodiversity of the area;

• An environmental workshop about the aptitude of the different life forms to live in the area;

• Endeavors, such as setting up the camp, growing plants and herbs in the garden of the Center;

• Working in groups to choose a name for the site and to give suggestions and recommendations to further develop the webpage;

• A visit to the Jericho Water Company; and

• Developing and presenting environmental projects:

  1. One group developed a theater play on several environment issues, community life and the economy and brought it the last day of the camp.

  2. Another group designed a recycling bucket in order to contain the problem of pollution, by separating in a rotating bin the different types of waste, such as waste that can be recycled such as iron, paper and plastic, waste that can be re-used, and waste that cannot be recycled or re-used.

  3. A group prepared a PowerPoint lecture on the pollution of seas and oceans;

  4. The last group designed drawings and small projects that focused on several environmental topics in general and on the role of the Israeli occupation in polluting directly or indirectly.