Drylands Restoration

Securing Rights and Restoring Lands for Improved Livelihoods

IUCN and partners have started the implementation of a project on Securing Rights and Restoring Lands for Improved Livelihoods in early 2011.

Jordan was selected as one of four country sites where this global project will be implemented; namely Botswana, Mali and Sudan. The three-year-project, is implemented by IUCN Regional Office for West Asia (ROWA) and funded by the European Union, aiming at poverty reduction, sustainable management and restoration of ecosystems in drylands and rangelands. Four pilot areas were selected in Jordan within Zarqa and Mafraq governorates.

The project is expected to achieve a number of results that local communities will benefit from on the local and global levels, with special attention to those important to women and vulnerable groups. Economically, the project will explore economic and income generating options for rural communities based on natural resource commodities and on valuations of ecosystem services. The project will also inform and influence policies to support sustainable management of drylands and rangelands at local, national, regional, and global levels.

A number of activities and plans are developed, that aim at building the capacities of local communities and their institutions to manage and restore their ecosystems, improve their marketing activities as well as support dialogues among local stakeholders and of multi-stakeholder dialogues to share, negotiate and agree understanding, knowledge, ideas and priorities.

For more informatiom please contact Ms. Fidaa Haddad, IUCN ROWA Project Manager and Gender Focal Point 

fida.haddad@iucn.org

 

The Global Drylands Initiative contributes to strengthening the resilience of dryland ecosystems and livelihoods and to conserving drylands biodiversity. The Initiative builds on and strengthens the local knowledge and institutions that enable people to govern their resources sustainably. This is achieved by strengthening rights and governance from local to national level as well as globally. www.iucn.org/about/union/secretariat/offices/esaro/what_we_do/drylands/

 

Rangeland management in Jordan

Participatory Video

Local dryland committees were trained on one of the most important tools for advocacy (Participatory Video “PV”).

Participatory Video is a new innovative way of capturing and sharing community voices on social and environmental change. Whereas the project approach focuses in part on capacity building, knowledge sharing and community participation, participatory video (PV) helps to better understand community needs and identify gaps in rangeland resource planning. The community can therefore document their environmental challenges, needs and ideas for solutions on the ground.

Exchange Visit at the RBG

Exchanging knowledge

May, 2012 Targeted local dry land management committee members from four areas in Zarqa were involved in an exchange visit to one of IUCN’s members, The Royal Botanical Garden in Jordan.

The exchange visit included an orientation & presentation about the Royal Botanical Garden, its objectives and missions. Specialists where kind enough to explain the benefits of rangeland management and its possible implications on their social, economical and environmental situation. A general discussion has allowed all of the participants to ask more questions and further understand the importance of rangeland management and the conservation of their area’ natural plant cover. Participants where very enthusiastic about applying the same methodology in their areas and will hopefully be able to encourage the whole community to adopt rangeland management.

A local initiative - Saving indigenous plants in Dileil

A local initiative - Saving indigenous plants in Dileil

February 2012

 

The ongoing degradation of ecosystem components in the Zarqa River Basin (ZRB) that started three decades ago currently stands as one of the most serious environmental challenges in Jordan. The Jordanian government classified ZRB as the most environmentally vulnerable region in the Kingdom.

 

Desertification has proved to be a major environmental problem in Jordan, with 81% of the country’s total area having been plagued by this situation and another 16% seriously threatened.

Dry lands are either used for range management or for rain-fed agriculture and in cases supplementary irrigation. All of these land uses are heavily dependent on scarce water resources in Jordan. To this alert IUCN ROWA is implementing a project called: "Securing Rights and Restoring Lands for Improved Livelihood", funded by the European Union. This project aims for poverty reduction, restoring key dryland ecosystem services and sustainable management in Jordan as part of a global dry land initiative.

In Jordan, the project targets the Zarqa River Basin, building on and strengthening local knowledge and institutions that enable people to govern their resources sustainably. The project will therefore help create income generating projects, influence policies and secure rights to private and common ecosystem services with special attention to women and vulnerable groups. The project will moreover and most importantly help manage dry landscapes sustainably.

As a result, the dry land management committee in Duliel (responsible for local initiatives) with the help of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Arab World Organization, have agreed to implement the Hima approach in a demonstration site in Duleil. The Hima approach will aid in restoring the lands’ indigenous plant cover and increase dry land management initiatives.

This initiative was celebrated on Wednesday 29th February 2012, in a joint effort to bring the local community together in understanding the importance of saving indigenous plants. Schools, the Duliel municipalities and districts have participated in planting trees provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, around the demonstration area in an attempt to show the importance of community participation in dry land restoration.

Drylands Restoration
Project Newsletters
Communication Stategy
Local Strategic Plans for Integrated Management of Dry Lands
Project Brochure
Baseline Study
Project Theory of Change
Management & Ownership
Documenting Change
References