Thursday, January 22, 2026
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM (Pacific Time)
Webinar

11:00 AM Pacific / 2:00 PM Eastern / 19:00 UK / 21:00 Israel

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Organized by the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. Co-sponsored by the UCLA Center for Middle East Development.

About the Program

Professor Yossi Leshem will discuss a groundbreaking initiative—begun in Israel and expanded to its neighbors—in which Barn Owls are used as biological pest-control agents of rodents in agriculture. The owls have significantly reduced the use of pesticides in agricultural fields, which severely harm wildlife and migratory birds. The Jordanians and Palestinians joined this project in 2002, and it has been highly successful from both an environmental perspective and in connecting peoples and religions within this region of conflict. In light of the project’s success, it has been joined by other countries around the world, including Morocco, Switzerland, Ukraine, Georgia, Italy, Germany, Zimbabwe, Cyprus, Greece, and the United States. Leshem will also describe the unique position of Israel as a locus of bird migration, where 500 million birds migrate from Europe and West Asia to Africa and back over Israel twice a year, which allows for many scientific studies on bird migration and protection.

 About the Featured Speaker

Yossi Leshem is a Professor Emeritus in the School of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University, and founder of the International Center for the Study of Bird Migration. In 1971, he began his career at the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and was CEO (1991–1995) and chair of its public council.

Prof. Leshem has been researching bird migration and raptor breeding ecology for 5 decades. He has met with world leaders to promote Environmental Protection including presidents, prime ministers and the Pope. Since 2002, Prof. Leshem has initiated a host of successful joint projects with the Jordanians and Palestinians using Barn Owls as biological pest control agents in agriculture, combining education, research, and nature conservation. The project became a national and regional project with 5,000 nesting boxes, which reduced dramatically the use of pesticides in the region. On 2015, Cyprus and Greece joined the project and on 2021, Morocco joined as well. Following the meetings held in October 2021, at Expo Dubai, with the Minister of Climate Change and Environment of the United Arab Emirates, they expressed a high interest to join the project as well. Now Prof. Leshem leads a trilateral project with Cyprus, Greece and Israel on the same subject.

Leshem  developed an online scientific educational curriculum (www.birds.org.il) that is currently taught in approximately 450 schools, and he is the author of 11 books, many scientific articles, and hundreds of popular articles. He is father of five, and grandfather to eight.

DISCLAIMER: The views or opinions of our guest speakers and the content of their presentations do not necessarily reflect the views of the UCLA Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. Hosting speakers does not constitute an endorsement of the speaker's views or opinions.

Sponsor(s): Center for Middle East Development