AUB-NCC Newsletter Summer 2010, Issue No. 28 by AUB-NCC

summer 10

Editorial

No.28

The Newsletter of Ibsar, the Nature Conservation Center for Sustainable Futures

Together, let us engage AUB, for a better community...

AUB student volunteers planting trees

We have a center now; great… so, what do we do next? A simple but fundamental question I asked myself as first director of the Center for Civic Engagement and Community Service (CCECS) when it was established at AUB in 2008. The mission was clearly stated, that “the primary goal of this center will be to provide opportunities for faculty and students of all backgrounds at AUB to study and respond to social and civic issues that are of critical importance to the Lebanese people and to the Middle East”. Some could say that this is a noble attitude for an educational institution to take, others may argue that this is the path that the university should have taken long time ago. But haven’t we being doing this all along? In all fairness, AUB has been committed to its communities since inception as a prime regional educator, but also as an active “service provider”. Many people have been involved in outreach activities and projects, teachers and researchers, students and staff, clubs and centers, all those who felt that our existence in this turbulent area of the world should mean more than just an academic presence. And often this depended on the efforts by dedicated individuals to make things happen, which would go unrewarded (though the reward was never an aim by itself ) or unnoticed, and even discouraged as I hear from many colleagues that serving our communities, as desirable as it could be, is a low priority for the university; rather, and as the “rules of game” dictate, faculty should be concentrating on more reliable sources, or otherwise depend on personal story-telling by old friends and colleagues to gather some past “community” involvement news and information.

But this is different now, what was supposed to be an “option” for the university to take (or not) is no more. The worldwide trend is for academic institutions to gear towards a healthier interaction with the community through simple actions such as promoting volunteering service activities outside the university, but more substantially by integrating the service to society with academic study and research. And this is not only for the sake of showing a “good” face (or faith) for an institution that aims at promoting social responsibility; indeed, it is to further enhance the leaning and induce in it a flavor that the graduates will appreciate when they go out and get involved in the real world of today. And so this is what the center is entrusted to do, and back to the same question, how and where to start? By the fact that AUB took upon itself to open its walls and initiate a center to engage its community inside with the community outside means that the institutional support is there. Therefore the main challenge is now to get the people at AUB on board, and they will need to know about us and believe in our mission and objectives; and so we had to go out and do it. At the time, there was one (half-time) director and one assistant at the center, with occasional assistance from students, but there was also an e-mail that works wonders, and many friends at AUB, personal and professional, whose help and advice were key in the start-up and development of CCECS. However, we were also worried that we need to move slowly to learn our way, and not propose or offer services that we could not properly deliver. A viable strategy was (and is still is) to start teaming with those at the university who have already a track of commitment to community service and development, groups or individuals, and this is how our first contacts with many at AUB started. Interestingly, and in the case of Ibsar and a numbered few other centers or academic/administrative units and student clubs, we did not need to knock on doors to reach out. From day one, Ibsar and its people understood us very well; in fact they did help us make our first move by requesting our assistance to solicit volunteers for their participation in Ayam al-Ouloum (or Days of Science), a national event aiming to bring science closer to a wide audience of all age spectators. Ibsar needed students to run a series of interactive and educational games on the theme of biodiversity, and so we provided and arranged for all needed logistics. As much as this required a careful follow-up from our side, it was a simple task, and we wondered what real or tangible benefit our intervention could have brought to Ibsar; they already had an outreach unit and program with a list of Ibsar friends, and they enlisted volunteers in the past. Perhaps they are doing us a favor, since many of Ibsar’s people are also personal friends or acquaintances, so that we feel we could be of use; then be it, we learned quite a bit from this modest experience. Well soon enough, we discovered that this was not the case, since Ibsar did not wait long before and they proposed to us to team and adventure with them on a long-term and sustained project, the Seeds of Hope – Trees for Tomorrow, a community tree planting campaign with Ibsar in various villages and towns across Lebanon. Since then, many other activities were developed between CCECS and Ibsar following the successful collaboration on the Power of Planting initiative, and this was a clear indication that the “Power of Partnership” worked very well. Coordination lines were 2

drawn so that efforts are not duplicated, and resources of the two centers were pooled for a better outcome and deliverables. Eventually, this partnership served us as a viable model which we emulated with others. Our work with Ibsar did not stop at developing mutually beneficial activities bounded within the walls of our centers. Soon after, we were able to work together and engage the university community from various disciplines in service-driven projects that aim to improve on the livelihood of people in need. The CCECS joined in a major rural ecosystem/heath initiative led by Ibsar in the village of Aarsal, and invited Ibsar to join in a greening and urban agriculture research and development project in the neighborhood of AUB and different informal settings. In adopting such ventures with Ibsar or along with other partners such as the Neighborhood Initiative, the CCECS is aiming at introducing these multi-disciplinary studies in the classroom and as class or research projects. This is currently involving several disciplines at AUB in landscape and agriculture, engineering and planning, health, chemistry and the environment, and others, and equally requires a viable partnership with external civic organizations and participation by the outside communities and people. Indeed, this is in line with one chief objective that the center is in the process of achieving, that is the launching of community-based learning at AUB, where the service rendered to the communities is integrated with the academic learning, with a tangible outcome leading to the implementation of the studies “on the ground.”

Lorax

Mounir Mabsout

The CCECS has grown substantially since we started. But this growth is not evident in the numbered few individuals who joined the center, or in the center’s space that is still the same, but rather in the many friends we made at AUB who believed in us and became our partners (and the list is growing), with Ibsar being the first to do, and still the most present in the daily “life” of the center. Indeed, I have come to learn, as many individuals or groups at the university who wish for us to project as a more humane campus, that we will need to pool together and promote the spirit of cooperation if our shared goal of social justice is to have an impact on our communities. At the end, when we succeed to graduate skilled professionals who are also socially responsible citizens, the university could safely claim that it has reached to its mission and promise “to provide excellence in education, to participate in the advancement of knowledge through research, and to serve the peoples of the Middle East and beyond.”

Ibsar translates Dr. Seuss children’s book to increase nature conservation awareness In line with Ibsar’s interest in reaching out to society, Professor Salma Talhouk undertook the task of translating Dr. Suess’s children’s book, The Lorax. This book, telling the poignant story of the demolition of a forest for production purposes and its effects on the local animal population, is a vital tool in creating environmentalfriendly thinking and awareness in the youth. The story was translated into Arabic for the benefit of all the children in the region. The Lorax, the imaginary creature who defends the forest, was given the Arabic name ‘Tabrouh’ and the book was titled ‘Laow’. “The story highlights the importance of 3

trees in the life cycles of many creatures,” said publisher Shereen Kreidieh. “What happens when we cut trees and abuse nature? The story concentrates on the concept of biodiversity, with emphasis on the needs of various creatures, and how to meet these needs in a new world.” The story was released at the end of May 2010 by ASALA publishers. The text is clear and interesting, and the illustrations are bright and marvelous. The Lorax was read to students in schools all over Lebanon by ibsar members as part of a nature conservation awareness project. Children engage well with the story; its fame in the Western world has been paralleled by the children here who read and fall in love with Tabrouh and the plight of the strange yet beautiful trees that are being demolished. Kreidieh commented on the effect of the book on her own daughter, who asks to have it read to her again and again. At the end of the book, when the forest is completely demolished, a single seed of the extinct trees is planted, giving rise to hope anew. “We were glad to have such a unique book among our releases,” said Kreidieh. “The book is one of a kind in different approaches; in theme, text, and illustrations.”

Plant a Heritage Auction

Hiba Krisht

An auction is about competing to acquire the desired object at any price. It is also the ‘laqta’ acquisition of this ‘thing’ the unique, original, priceless object. Ibsar ‘planting trees’ auction has redefined the objectives of an auction; it was not anymore, about a thing to possess. The auction promoted the ‘invaluable’ desire to plant trees all over Lebanon. The ‘objects’ for sale were trees, identified by their names and their specificity. The ‘lots’ were divided and priced according to the number of trees. The unit price was set at 10000LL, matching the cost of growing a seed into a small tree. The lot ranged from 50,000LL to 1,000,000LL. Unlike usual auctions, the ‘objects’/trees paid for, were neither seen, nor possessed. They surely bear the name of the ‘acquirer’, who will have to take a trip to the village or the city where they were planted in order to see but not to own them; Ibsar keeping a reliable record of kind and number of planted trees. The trend of ‘possessing’ is defeated in this auction. ‘Planting trees’ auction is only about fulfilling the desire to restore, conserve and [why not] embellish, the environment.

The pleasure of bidding is not lessened in the process. On the contrary, bidding for a ‘dream come true’ heightened the experience. Some of the bidders were experiencing an auction for the first time. The thrill of bidding higher than the opponent and sometimes ‘acquiring’ the lot was multiplied by the fact that no object was acquired.

Plant a heritage auction

IPAS in Lebanon

Zeina Miskawi

The only objective remaining was to fulfil the desire to participate and sponsor tree planting.

Ibsar highlights important plant areas (IPA) in Lebanon This year Ibsar was approached by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to undertake a project that designates IPAs for Lebanon. IPA designation is a process that is taking place all over the world, and it is done by carrying out a rapid assessment of the flora of the country according to two basic criteria set by the IUCN. The first entails defining areas that contain endemic species, or local species that are not to found elsewhere; If these areas are not preserved the species will become extinct. The second criterion is to locate areas that are rich in a variety of species, either having high flora content or multiple endemic species. Lastly, habitats that are threatened are also eligible for inclusion as IPA’s, irrespective of whether it contains endemic species or not.

Ibsar team Dr. Mariana Yazbek, Mr. Mohamad El Zein, and Ms. Nisrine Houri identifying IPAS in Lebanon

An example is the Lebanese coast, which is a habitat that is located nowhere else in the country. The coast’s ecosystem is threatened by rapid urbanization, and this makes it an Important Plant Area. 5

According to these criteria, IPA sites have been designated. This exercise revealed that most of these site lie on the western slopes of the Mount Lebanon range and include the country’s highest peak, Qornet Es-Sawda, as well as areas in along the coast, the Anti-Lebanon mountain range, the semi-arid areas of the Bekaa valley, and the marshes of the West Bekaa. Endemic or threatened species are found in almost every designated IPA site, most of them contain more than 10 nationally endemic species and some sites, such as Bcharreh-Ehden, Chouf, Makmel, and Keserwan are exceptionally rich in endemics. To help designate IPAs, an Ibsar collaborative team was formed and included Ibsar member Professor Salma Talhouk, associate members, Dr. Mariana Yazbek, Ms. Nisrine Machaka-Houri, Mr. Mohammad Al-Zein, Dr. Nada Sinno-Seoud and Dr. Samir Safi at the Lebanese University. The team performed extensive literature reviews to build a database recording which species are reportedly found in which areas, and then compiled their findings into a document listing all the species found in a given specific area. Accordingly, they were able to designate areas are high in plant and endemic species. IPA’s are just the beginning. The same process is being carried out for designating Important Bird Areas (IBA), Important Mammal Areas (IMA’s), and others. Ultimately the findings will be compounded and key biodiversity areas with respect to all sorts of life can be compounded. Dr. Mariana Yazbek spoke of her experience designating IPA’s. “This is the first project I worked on after finishing my PhD. I had done a lot of field work in Lebanon previously but I with this project I was surprised by the diversity we had. For example, even though you might know beforehand that the Chouf area is very rich in species, once you start actually listing the species you are astounded. Once we had the numbers down they become strong evidence of the diversity in Lebanon.”

Ethnobotanical

Hiba Krisht

Ibsar brings back ethnobotanical knowledge

Ibsar’s six-year efforts in learning about local plants have come together in and illustrated guide to Lebanon’s flora called Plants and People: Ethnobotanical Knowledge from Lebanon, Written in Arabic and English, and illustrated with both paintings and photographs, Plants and People is co-authored by Ibsar’s Dr. Rami Zurayk and Dr. Salma Talhouk.

This book is a watershed of the work in Ibsar on the indigenous plants of Lebanon and is an outcome of a fruiful relationship with the Italian Cooperation Office of the Embassy of Italy in Beirut, the Italian NGO UCODEP, and Slow Food Beirut. The end result is this book, a compilation of the ethnobotanical knowledge on local plants that are commonly used for food, aesthetics, or medicine in Lebanon. In the introduction to Plants and People, Dr. Talhouk and Dr. Zurayk write about the history of ethnobotanical knowledge. Stemming from the time of the hunter-gatherers when people relied mostly on plants for their nourishment, knowledge was compiled and shared, and plants became vital for food and for their medicinal potential. “Within communities, a few men and women became the acknowledged experts in recognizing the plants, harvesting them, and extracting their components in order to concentrate their effect. Many became priests or priestesses, shamans, sorcerers or witches,” wrote Dr. Talhouk and Zurayk. Some plants became considered sacred and were associated with religious worship, while others had more ordinary uses in construction and art in addition to food. Communication and trade triggered the exchange of knowledge, and botanical knowledge was mixed and merged. Plants were transferred into new environments. The modern medical industry capitalizes on ethnobotanical know-how. Most of the drugs we buy from pharmacies originate from the plant kingdom. Now, ethnobotanical knowledge has disappeared as people have moved away from gathering wild plants for food and other usages. Plants and People is an effort at bringing some of this ethnobotanical knowledge. Proceeds from its sales will go towards promoting biodiversity conservation in Lebanon. Another wonderful aspect of this book is its use of art as a medium for scientific expression, a concept that Ibsar is dedicated to. That is why in the production of Plants and People, undergraduate student and gifted painter Cynthia Garios, final year Graphic Design student Waleed Saab, and photographer Khaled Sleem all contributed to making the art that graces every page.

IBDAA 2010

Hiba Krisht

Ibdaa 2010 fosters green solutions to everyday problems International Biodiversity Day At AUB (IBDAA) this year had a fresh twist. The annual poster and project exhibit, taking place this year on May 21 facing Ada Dodge Hall, strove towards nature conservation by using “green products.” Household items such as cinnamon, charcoal, and thyme can be green solutions for getting rid of common problems like bad smells, fungus, and cigarette smoke in an environmentally-friendly way. The object of having students innovate these solutions is to replace more detrimental household products with effective safe means of eradicating problems. 7

Other purposes of Ibdaa are teaching students the concept of completion and creating a scientific forum where students discuss the scientific values of their attendees. According to Professor Najat Saliba of the Chemistry department, “This means that students will create the idea, develop it, materialize it and present it in a scientific manner.” In other words, Ibdaa not only encourages rethinking bioconservation solutions, it also fosters innovation on the students’ part. Participants this year ranged from both science and non-science courses, bridging the gap between the sciences and the arts when it comes to biodiversity. Some of the more artistic contributions to Ibdaa included a work of art called “Nature” created by ceramics students and consisting of three sculptures representing environmental destruction. Another project was a microbiology study carried out at the Jeita Grotto showing that there are traces of E. coli in the caves, marking the disturbance of the ecological balance.

Dr. Saliba spoke about the involvement this year. “Ibdaa 2010 showed the highest number of participants to date,” she said. “Students shared their creative projects with great enthusiasm.”

Ibsar Retreat

Hiba Krisht

Ibsar Spring Retreat On May 27th, 2010 Ibsar hosted a retreat in West Hall open to all faculty member. The purpose was to foster wider involvement in Ibsar from within AUB including nonscientific faculty. The retreat was also attended by Provost Ahmad Dallal and Dean Nahla Hwalla of the Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences. “We have organized this retreat to encourage peers to join our collective academic efforts, because disciplinary boundaries do not exist between nature conservation and human well-being which are interconnected” remarked Ibsar director and professor Salma Talhouk. Following their interest, participants joined one of three discussion groups representing broad themes of medicinal aspects of plants, people and nature, and

economic value of plants. Reporting on the discussion that took place in the first group, professor Rabih Talhouk indicated that issues that were raised included the possibility of offering courses, consolidating research efforts, and disseminating research findings. Discussions on the perception of nature within the Lebanese and Middle East culture from people of different academic orientations and faculties took place in the second group. Professor Jala Makhzoumi highlighted several key ideas that were proposed, including the importance of teaching about literary figures who wrote about nature internationally, and their subsequent impact on the global and individual opinion of nature. Reporting on the third and last group, professor Najat Saliba explained that the discussion that took place was primarily within the context of Ibdaa and the educational aspects of this event regarding the entrepreneurial process of developing nature based products. Professor Makhzoumi, discussed the significance of the inclusion of these topics in conjunction with nature conservation, stating “We need to follow up on these aspects for they have not been explored thoroughly.” Indeed, the retreat served more as a way of announcing Ibsar to peers while widening membership and interest in topics that were previously only broached by scientists. Professor Makhzoumi, herself is a landscape architect, spoke highly of the possibility of widening the scope of Ibsar in the future, as well as the spread of interest and awareness about biodiversity to the AUB students and faculty. “Individuals can contribute independently or in collaboration with others, however the most important thing remains to be the integration of the Ibsar mission within AUB’s curriculum,” remarked Makhzoumi. It is without a doubt that nature awareness can be very much implemented in several key disciplines, as evident by the wide range of them that was covered during the retreat. Medicinal, economic, literary, and social academics have many fields associated with nature, and its integration should be “very do-able,” according to Dr. Makhzoumi.

Lojine Kamel

Professor Salma Talhouk expanded on this point, ascertaining the value Ibsar places on faculty collaboration: “The best way to guarantee that Ibsar remains a distinguished academic platform at AUB is to ensure that membership in Ibsar remains all encompassing and dynamic in its growth and focus, that it embraces new disciplines and programs, integrates new approaches and view points, and seeks to provide support and inspiration to students, peers, and the community at large.” 9

Student Volunteer Profiles

Volunteer profiles: Samer Bu Jawdeh and Nada Jouni

New faces and eager hands striving to preserve biodiversity are part-and-parcel of the Ibsar experience. Arbi Sarkissian, Outreach Project Coordinator at Ibsar, held training sessions for new volunteers at the AUB campus, where he taught them how to plant trees by live demonstration. Two of these volunteers, Mechanical Engineering student Samer Bu Jawdeh and Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management student Nada Jouni, took away a medley of positive experiences from the planting trips they took part in. “We travelled to many areas,” Bu Jawdeh said, “such as Baabda, Qana, Tripoli, Rasel-Metn, and Anjar. Every place was beautiful and unique. Trip after trip, our hands interacted with the land. Our teamwork with the local volunteers was very fruitful.” Bu Jawdeh also spoke of the sadness in the planting experience. “Once when we went weeding in the South, we discovered that many trees we previously planted had actually died.” He stressed the importance of the local community, saying that if they play an active role in preserving the trees, they will flourish. “In the end, the success of Ibsar’s mission lies in the collaboration, empathy, and awareness of the whole country,” he said. Jouni, who has been volunteering with Ibsar for two years, has gained enough experience during her planting trips to become a tree-planting coordinator, one of Sarkissian’s monitoring team. “This has been a really great experience for me,” she said. “I’m still aiming to do more.” In addition to the planting trips, Bu Jawdeh took part in the Mother Earth seed-planting event at AREC on April 19-20. “It was lots of fun,” he said. “We had a biodiversity costume party, where each of us had to wear a costume related to nature. We also took a look at the translation of Dr. Suess’s book The Lorax.” The next day, he was back out the fields helping out with transplanting, weeding, and watering. Jouni, on

the other hand, pitched in at the annual BIOKIDS and biodiversity days organized by Ibsar, in addition to planting Seeds of Hope. Her experiences were augmented by the wonderful staff she had to work with. “I would really like to thank the Ibsarians for their lovely company and their motivation,” she said. “The most beautiful and inspiring thing I saw was the diversity of the plants and trees sharing common land. Biodiversity is a gift we should cling to and protect,” concluded Bu Jawdeh. “It is also a matter of identity construction and social unity. We drastically need more planters from within AUB and Lebanon. Hopefully we can reach out more.”

Research Communication

Hiba Krisht

Ibsar researchers purify anticancer substances from indigenous Lebanese plants Throughout the last six years, faculty members and researchers from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Faculty of Agriculture and Food Science, and the Faculty of Medicine have been conducting studies through Ibsar on sesquiterpene lactones.

Centaunea aintensis

Sesquiterpene lactones are substances that are found in medicinal plants that are indigenous to Lebanon and that have promising anticancer and anti-inflammatory functions. Sesquiterpene lactones are a type of plant secondary metabolite. Plant secondary metabolites are defined as products of metabolism that are not essential for the growth, reproduction, or development of an organism. Instead, sesquiterpene lactones are needed for plants to adjust to their environment and to defend themselves against predators and harsh environmental conditions and consequently play a major role in plant biodiversity. AUB faculty have collaborated to write a review called “What Made Sesquiterpene Lactones Reach Cancer Clinical Trials?” PhD student Akram Ghantous, and Professors Hala Gali-Muhtasib, Najat Saliba, and Nadine Darwiche coauthored the review, which appeared in Drug Discovery Today, a journal that has been at the cutting edge of the science underpinning drug discovery and development since 1996. Researchers at Ibsar have purified several sesquiterpene lactones with promising anticancer and anti-inflammatory activities similar to those published in the review.

Corresponding author Professor Nadine Darwiche expressed her enthusiasm about this study. “I am very excited about all of this and hopeful that one of the sesquiterpene lactones that we extracted and purified from indigenous Lebanese plants will make it to the cancer clinic.”

Achillea falcata

Hiba Krisht

The importance of preserving native medicinal plants is paramount; their promising role in fighting cancer and inflammation means extra care should be taken to utilize them in a sustainable way.