White Storks as Peace Doves

Half a billion birds, more than every other place in the world, pass through Israel every fall and spring. Nature protectors try to woo more tourists into the country – also in order to strengthen their own nature protection lobby.

By Thomas Krumenacker - Translation: David Schoneveld

Should conversations be conducted in such a way in a nature paradise? “We wait to see how many ambulance sirens we hear. One is no problem; it starts to be critical with the second. When we hear the third, we know something has happened”. David, a tall, calm Dutchman in his forties, gives me a glimpse into the strategy that people in Israel cope with to deal with the danger and the fear of terror attacks. At the end of January, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the holiday hotspot of Eilat, 40 kilometers away, in which three Israelis died. It had been the first time that terrorists had tried to attack the heart of the Israeli tourist industry at the shores of the Red Sea.

And yet, as the residents of the Kibbutz state not without some subcurrent of criticism, it is mostly visitors who broach the subject of terrorism. Israel is not less secure than other parts of the world, they believe. Is this just jadedness after many years of danger, or is the fear of attacks in Israel being blown out of proportion in Europe? And haven’t German authorities recently warned that Berlin, Cologne and Munich are also in a similar “danger level” as Madrid, London and even Tel Aviv?

Also David, who has lived on Lotan for 15 (sic) years, can also say a thing or two about the absurdly overstressed fear of terror in Europe. “We are known as a war zone”, he says with a sarcastic undertone, while children are scampering around with a colorful multilingualism of Hebrew, English and French. No, the small kibbutz in the south of Israel does not appear to be in a war zone. The border runs directly behind the Kibbutz. Israel and Jordan, in addition to Egypt, are only separated by a rusty fence and two gravel roads, on which the border patrols of both states patrol in their jeeps.

The breakfast conversation about terror, fear and hysteria is ended by something for which the community in the desert has become world famous among aficionados: birds. Jonathan Meyrav, one of the best birdwatchers in Israel, steps up to the table and announces to those present: “The sky is full of storks!” Racing out of the dining room into the open, the visitors and residents alike look into the radiant blue morning sky. Some with the naked eye, others who have traveled from far and wide with binoculars and scopes, gather around Jonathan, the 30-year old expert with the ponytail and sunglasses to be shown the world of birds in the desert.

Endlessly, thousands of White Storks soar above their heads, from white clouds new groups keep emerging. All of them are gliding, effortlessly using the warm air currents of this spring morning; no wing beats are to be seen. More than 6,000 birds form this group, and all of them are heading north to their nesting grounds in Poland, France, and even Germany. In a few days they will clapper their beaks in search of mates on barn roofs in Brandenburg or the Elsass, where they will be greeted as the usherers of spring.

Ornithologists from Kibbutz Kfar Ruppin will later announce spectacular numbers. On the fields and lawns around the Kibbutz they have counted no less than 102,000 storks. “Ten percent of the entire world’s population have slept there today”, says the most well known ornithologist of Israel, Yossi Leshem proudly.

This nature paradise is also the focal point of world political activity with what seems to be the most intractable of conflicts, the one of the Middle East, which is taking place right here. This is the situation that faces Israel’s nature protectors. Hoping that there will be some kind of political détente, they want to go on the offensive and bring hundreds of thousands of bird enthusiasts to Israel: as an economic factor and in order to garner support in the fight against the ever increasing destruction of Israel’s nature.

The conditions for this are without equal on a global scale – and one can study this every day in the “bird kibbutz” Lotan, the heart of the Arava valley in a fascinating way. The mountains of Jordan on the one side and the mountains of the Negev desert on the other mark the valley that loses itself half an hour’s drive to the south in Eilat on the Red Sea at the Gulf of Aqaba. In the morning the sedimentary rocks of the Arava hills light up at first light, almost white; in the mild evening light the mountains on the other side of the valley in Jordan glow in deep red. The various rock formations mark the exact demarcation between the African and the Eurasian continent. They belong to the Great Rift Valley, the giant tear in the earth’s crust that has been created by the movement of the earth’s tectonic plates over the past 35 million years, and stretches over 7,000 kilometers from Turkey to Mozambique.

This unique fact makes the small country into one of the most important crossroads of global bird migration. 500 million migratory birds pass through Israel, a country the size of Hessen, every fall and spring. Smaller and lighter birds – passerines such as Blackcap, Garden Warbler, Bluethroat, Northern Wheatear and other long-range migrants such as the Common Swift, Barn Swallow and House Martin choose the most direct route from wintering to breeding grounds. They prefer to migrate at night when the temperatures are lower and the danger is less from natural predators such as birds of prey. For the long journey, often without a pause, over 3,000 kilometers of desert they build up fat reserves in the green oases of Israel. It is a good opportunity for bird observations of very reclusive rarities, but are much less shy here and occur in great numbers.

Large, heavy birds – storks, pelicans and birds of prey – have another strategy. Their body is too heavy in relation to their wingspan to transport fat reserves. They fly conserving energy by utilizing thermals – warm air currents that rise up along the mountain ridges and come up from the valleys that are warmed up by the sun. These then transport the birds to higher altitudes. Because thermals only form over land, large birds stay away from large bodies of water and use wherever possible land corridors. Israel is – even before Panama and the Straits of Gibraltar – one of these worldwide bottlenecks, and the number of remarkable birds of prey that cross Israel during each migratory season is impressive. The entire world’s population of the endangered Lesser Spotted Eagle – only a few pairs breed in north eastern Germany – and the Levant Sparrowhawk that hails from eastern Europe pass through the aerial space of the Jewish state.

Communities like Kibbutz Lotan have recognized the treasure that they have, and successfully offer birding tours with lodging; from half-day explorations in the immediate vicinity up to seven-day tours through all of southern Israel (www.birdingisrael.com).  But Israel’s ornithologists surrounding Dan Alon, the chair of the Israel Society for the Protection of Nature, want more. They want to revert to earlier times and bring large numbers of eco-tourists into the country.

"Now is the right time to send out a signal to the world. Israel is prepared to show its guests something unique", says the ordinarily levelheaded man. Alon, who has been included by the Time magazine in its "Heroes Gallery for the Planet" because of his activities in protection of birds across boundaries, also directs the appeal to his own government. "We want to make them understand that this is not just some harebrain idea from a couple of bird fanatics", he says. "We are talking about a completely underrated economic factor". Alon, the bird lobbyist, also hopes for inputs for nature: "we can strengthen the voice of the environment with these visitors", he says, pointing to the indiscriminate destruction of rest and wintering grounds by the construction of roads and the intensification of agriculture. "The birds who arm themselves for the continuation of their migration have no alternative. We have to fight for them".

True to the slogan of their lobbying work “Birds no know boundaries”, Israel’s bird conservationists also cross their own. They have just erected the first bird conservation station together with Palestinian colleagues in the West Bank. The Palestinian ringers at the station in Jericho had been trained in Israel, technical equipment and materials also came from Israel. “Cooperation in the Middle East has been here already, we have been dong it”, says Yossi Leshem.

Alon and Leshem confer on a regular basis with their Palestinian counterpart, Imad Atrush. They plan and put into action new projects that transcend borders. For example, birds that have been trapped for the purpose of ringing and placing tracking devices to mark out their migratory routes have been provided with Christian, Jewish and Muslim names. Since then children in the West Bank, Jordan and Israel follow the migratory route of “their” bird via internet, and learn not only about the migration, but also that there are people on the other side of the border with the same passion.

"Maybe the doves will not bring us peace one day, but the White Stork will", Yossi Leshem likes to say. "Israel's geographical location is a geopolitical catastrophe, only for nature is it a paradise", he says enthusiastically. The newest project that the Israelis Alon and Leshem, and the Palestinian Atrush are working on is the introduction of the Barn Owl as a "biological weapon" across borders to deal with rodent pests in Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian agriculture. It is accompanied by an educational project for school children that includes common meetings. "Birds are wonderful ambassadors", Dan is sure.

The importance that eco-tourism can have for the struggling Israeli economy has been shown in politically quieter times in the past few decades. Between the first and the second Intifada hundreds of thousands of birders visited the country, most of them through tour operators. After Palestinian violence was re-ignited, many operators crossed Israel off their programs. Since then, eco-tourists tour the land almost exclusively on their own. The figures from the Ministry of Tourism read as a barometer of the Middle Eastern conflict. At the beginning of last year, euphoria was high. In the first half of the year, 22 percent more tourists visited Israel than in the previous year. The change happened with the outbreak of the Lebanon war. The year ended with 1.8 million visitors – five percent less than in the weak 2005.

Ornithologists can also tell bitter tales. With unified powers, they put together an ornithological tour book. “In September 2000, we finally had the book on the shelves” Dan Alon reports, and raises his eyebrows, “just in time for the second Intifada…” The book remained a dud for a long time. The Middle Eastern conflict also torpedoed the plans of the eco-strategists. Just as the first international migratory bird festival had been announced in the Hula valley in the north, bringing in top experts from around the world, the Lebanon war broke out. The Hula valley, one of the largest wetlands in the Middle East, which hosts tens of thousands of cranes each winter, became the target of Katyusha rockets from Hizbullah terrorists.

Undaunted, Alon, Leshem and Meyrav and their partners made another attempt at the end of March, and organized the first “spring festival”, this time in Eilat. Many foreign visitors came, took part in tours and were awed by the natural beauty of Israel. All of the press reported about this event, and first niche tour operators included Israel in their programs. At the closing event the organizers reported their proud results: 219 bird species had been seen during the week, including rarities such as the Nubian Nightjar and the Sinai Rosefinch. Yes, this is the way conversations should sound in a nature paradise.

Article appeared in: http://jungle-world.com:80/seiten/2007/20/9943.php

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Daphna Abell
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