Newsletter

Spring 2001: Au Sable Internships

Environmental Education in Lebanon
by Laurel Sprenger

Lebanon is a country of great contrasts. Magnificent snow-covered mountains, hillsides covered with wildflowers, and soft Mediterranean sunsets contrast with litter-filled ditches, polluted rivers and overgrazed mountain slopes. In Beirut, modern skyscrapers are built amidst war-ravaged apartment blocks. Women in full Islamic dress walk beside others wearing the newest fashions from Europe. On the roads, brand-new BMW cars pass trucks filled with migrant workers who labor for US$6.00 US per day.
In this country of contrasts, where development seems to be proceeding without heed to the environment, A Rocha Lebanon is working to protect the Aammiq Marsh, the most important remaining wetland in Lebanon. Threats to this beautiful and biodiversity-rich area are numerous, including drainage for agricultural use, expansion of roads, hunting, fires, pollution, overgrazing and general disturbance. In response to these threats, A Rocha Lebanon is working with the landowners, the Ministry of Environment, the United Nations Development Project, and others to protect the Aammiq Marsh.

One of the important ways we are doing so is by running an education program for Lebanese young people, teaching about the beauty and value of the natural environment. Each spring and autumn, we welcome school groups to our classroom near the marsh, where they learn about the natural history of the area and the importance of conservation. Then we head out to the wetlands, where they can experience for themselves the beauty of a wild orchid, the wonder of a tadpole with legs, or the majesty of a hawk circling above the marsh.

An intern with A Rocha Lebanon will have the opportunity to spend three months in Lebanon during our spring education season. Two or three days per week will be spent hosting groups, with non-teaching days being used for creating new materials and expanding our current curricula. The intern will be housed in the A Rocha Lebanon guest flat, a large apartment in the nearby village of Aana which overlooks the Bekaa Valley and the Anti-Lebanon mountains to the East. The internship is supervised by Chris Naylor, head warden of A Rocha Lebanon.

Laurel Sprenger is an alumna of Au Sable Institute. She and her husband Andy were staff on the Michigan campus for two years, and are now employed as assistant wardens for A Rocha Lebanon. They have been living in Lebanon for a year.

For more information, see A Rocha Lebanon Environmental Education Internship - Lebanon.

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