About Project Wadi Attir

Project Wadi Attir is a groundbreaking initiative of a Bedouin community in the Negev desert, demonstrating an approach to sustainable desert agriculture that leverages Bedouin traditional values, know-how and experience with modern-day science and cutting edge technologies.

Initiated by The Sustainability Laboratory, a US-based non-profit, and the Hura Municipal Council, the governing body of a local Bedouin township, the project showcases implementation of holistic sustainability principles developed by The Lab.

Project Wadi Attir demonstrates an approach to sustainable development in an arid environment, valid and replicable locally as well as in other desert regions around the world.

The core of the project includes an organic farming enterprise involving animal husbandry and the production of dairy products; cultivation of medicinal plants and the development of a related line of health products; and the reintroduction of nutritious, indigenous vegetables to common use. The project will also include a Visitor, Training and Education Center with a focus on ecology, sustainability innovation, and entrepreneurship. The project site will be supported by an integrated infrastructure of green technologies, including a soil enhancement program; solar energy and bio-gas production; the production of compost from organic waste; advanced irrigation management; and wastewater treatment and recycling.

Program for Ecosystem Restoration at Project Wadi Attir

Major sustainability improvements in regional community resources are expected from an intensive ecosystem rehabilitation program to result in increased biodiversity, water use efficiency, land conservation, carbon sequestration and agricultural productivity. The goal is to serve as a model system for dryland communities around the world.

Degraded drylands, such those found originally at the site of Project Wadi Attir, have low biological and agricultural productivity and biodiversity.

Agroforestry and silvipasture combined with erosion control and water harvesting can restore soil quality, native biodiversity and vegetation. Ecosystem restoration activities in such degraded drylands are exerting profound environmental benefits including carbon sequestration, enhanced fodder productivity, crop production and wood supply; reduced fertilizer use due to nitrogen fixing plants and nutrient recovery from deep soil by trees.

This educational website serves as a research account and knowledge base for the theory, progress, and lessons learned through the ecosystem restoration activities at the project site. Through the 8 main program areas, which include a set of learning modules designed to guide understanding, one can enter the fascinating and vitally important world of dryland restoration and how that process can unfold.