8 Case studies. (p. 162) 163 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 164 115 116 117 118 120 119 121 fig. 107 - 121: Variety of rooftop functions in Palestinian refugee camps (own photographs) 165 8 Case studies 12 The first part of this chapter provides an insight into the abundance and variety of rooftop farming projects in the Middle East in general. The second part focuses on four concrete rooftop farming projects in Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan and the West Bank, which we have visited and analysed in depth during our field research. A juxtaposition of the case studies at the end of this chapter (see 8.3 Juxtaposition of the case studies within the four dimensions) detects their action space as well as their limits and boundaries according to the four dimensions by Safier (2002) (see Chapter 2.2Room for manoeuvre). Thus, this chapter lays the basis for the definition of apotential action space for agents operating within com- munity-based projects in the area of climate change adaptation. 10 1 2 3 4 5 7 6 8 9 11 fig. 122: Urban agriculture projects in Palestinian refugee camps in the Middle East (own illustration) 166 8.1 Urban agriculture practices in the Middle East 12 The field- and online research revealed that using the roof as a resource to produce food has become a common practice all over the Middle East, and in Palestinian refugee camps more specifically. (see fig. 122) Mostly implemented under the umbrella of international donor-led projects the roof is more and more perceived and used as a productive space. 01 Jordan, Husn Camp – GIZ / Al-Karmel The project is run by the NGO Greening Club The Camps, which consists of an interdis- community building, activating existing ciplinary, international team. The NGO capacities, self-initiative started with a pilot project on the rooftop 10 of a cultural centre in Amman in 2017 and This rooftop farm project is one outcome of finished their first rooftop farm in Jerash the 2012 completed CIP and was financed Camp in 2018. In Jerash Camp, the project and initiated by the GIZ. Within this pro- was implemented on the rooftop of a newly cess, the GIZ offered four CBOs the oppor- built vocational school and lays a focus on tunity to realise self-initiated projects. As a women’s participation in rooftop farming. result, one of the CBOs focused on rooftop Financially the NGO relies on crowdfun- 1 farming and implemented 34 greenhouses ding campaigns and independent donors. on private and institutional rooftops inside (Greening The Camps, n.d.) 2 and outside of Husn Camp. The responsible 3 CBO is embedded in the already existing 03 4 structure of the local football club Al Kar- West Bank, Ramallah – Café La Vie 5 7 6 mel. subsistence economy, commercial use 8 9 02 The rooftop farm atCafé La Vie is a self-or- Jordan, Jerash Camp and Amman – ganised project initiated and implemented Greening the Camps by the owner of the café. The aim of the women’s participation, community buil- project is to produce vegetables as organi- ding, cooperation with an existing educa- cally as possible. The yield is used by the tional institution restaurant as well as by the family of the 11 167 owner. The beds are self-built and consist a community-based cultural centre they mainly of recycled materials. Furthermore, aim to increase awareness on healthy nu- the Café La Vie has a garden, where they trition and provide camp inhabitants with hold chicken and sheep. The owner is in the possibility to grow and consume orga- contact and interacts with organic farmers nic and fresh products themselves. (Ma’an in Palestine. (Cooper, n.d.) News Agency, 2014) 04 06 West Bank, Dheisheh Camp – Karama West Bank, Fawwar Camp – GIZ / FCYC economic empowerment, commercial creates a sense of ownership, community use, women’s participation building, experimenting on site The project is run by the camp-based CBO The project, which is funded by GIZ, aims to Karama, which aims to enhance the par- integrate youth and young adults into the ticipation of women within Dheisheh re- development of the camp. For this purpose, fugee camp. The project’s aim is to create the Fawwar Camp Youth Council (FCYC) a business, which goes beyond the camp was formed. The initial farming-project is borders. Thus, it enables women to genera- set up like a laboratory, in which the par- te additional income for their households ticipants themselves are in charge of de- and to raise awareness about healthy nu- signing and managing a feasible prototype trition. Within two funding phases, the of a rooftop farm. Furthermore, the young European Union and other donors, installed volunteers implement and support private more than 50 rooftop farm units until 2017. rooftop farms within the community them- (Karama Organisation, n.d.) selves. (Interview Mura, 2018) 05 07 West Bank, Aida Camp – Refutrees / La- Gaza, Gaza City – Global Communities jee Center subsistence economy, training building awareness, subsistence eco- nomy, community building The project is run by the US-based NGO Global Communtites. The funding of this As a critical reaction to the failure of cur- NGO consists of contributions of various rent development and aid programs and in large, global companies. Within this pro- order to end donor-reliance, the Canadian ject, 2,000 families received a starter kit to NGO Refutrees started an urban farming implement a rooftop farm, whereas other project in Aida Camp. In cooperation with families received chickens or rabbits. In 168 addition, all participants receive a training his harvest in the future. (Anera, n.d. B) on how to maintain their new urban farms. (Collard, 2013) 10 Libanon, Nahr El Bared Camp – Anera 08 subsistence economy Gaza, Deir El Balah – Anera economic empowerment, commercial use, The project is implemented by the NGO training Anera and embedded in a broad recons- truction process of Nahr El Bared Camp, Within this project, greenhouses in two which was destroyed due to war in 2007. neighbourhoods in Gaza are financed by The project follows a previous successful the Gaza Food Security Programme, an in- approach in Ein El-Helweh Camp, where a itiative, which was set up by the American rooftop farm and vertical farming structu- NGO American Near East Refugee Aid (An- res were developed in cooperation with the era). Project participants are supplied with local Women’s Programme Centre. In Nahr greenhouses, farming tools, water tanks, El Bared Camp, the NGO provides eight fa- irrigation systems, seedlings and training. milies with plants, trees, seeds, fertilizer as The produced vegetables are sold at the ne- well as boxes and barrels to plant in. (Ane- arby market, whereas the thus generated ra, n.d. C; Anera n.d. D) money is used for healthcare services of family members. (Anera, n.d. A) 11 Egypt, Maadi – Schaduf 09 economic empowerment, commercial Gaza, Beit Lahia – Anera use, use of innovative irrigation system economic empowerment, commercial use, visibility in public This project is initiated and developed by the Egyptian company Schaduf, which This project is implemented by the NGO partly focuses on implementing rooftop Anera as a pilot project for urban farming, farms for low-income families in Maadi. in which mainly strawberries are grown Through a pay-back system the initial in- in vertical garden structures. As reaction vestment is returned after one year. The to peoples’ interest in farming, the farm participants pay off the loan by selling was opened up to interested visitors and parts of the harvest back to the enterprise. schools. As this project passed the global All rooftop farms were implemented with a standard test, the farm owner will, besides hydroponic system. (Kalan, n.d.) producing for the local market, also export 169 12 Iraq, Domiz Camp – Lemon Tree Trust and Jordan, Azraq Camp - Lemon Tree Trust community building, subsistence eco- nomy, building awareness The project is run by the British NGO Le- mon Tree Trust. Responding to the ongo- ing crisis and forced migration of Syrian refugees, the NGO aims to mainstream and encourage urban agriculture and greening innovation by setting up a demonstration garden, supporting the implementation of community gardens and distributing gardening kits in Syrian refugee camps in Jordan and Iraq. The NGO’s projects do not focus on rooftop farming, yet, they strongly address community-based and ca- pacity-building approaches within urban farming in the context of refugee camps. (Lemon Tree Trust, 2018) 170 171 8.2 Four detected typologies of rooftop farming in Jordan and the West Bank The four case studies, which we have visited and examined more closely during our stay in Jordan and the West Bank are all located in Palestinian refugee camps, however, following different approaches and aims. Even though they all share the concept of contributing to the resilience of the particular neighbourhood on an economical, ecological and/ or social scale, they can be differentiated into four detected typologies: I. rooftop farming as a continuation of existing knowledge of community-based initiatives II. rooftop farming as an introduced tool for community building III. rooftop farming as an income generating practice IV. rooftop farming as part of an educational system Since the case studies are supposed to generate information about different project setups and approaches, in a first step, they are analysed under the following aspects: • context • approach • project setup • target group • involved actors and financing • timeframe • used techniques and costs 172 As described in the chapter 2 Theoretical framework and chapter 3 Methodology, for evaluating the case studies the four-dimensional model of action space by Safier (2002) is applied.