Kingdom shares ecotourism expertise with neighbours

AMMAN - Hana Namrouqa - Jordan’s success in ecotourism and environmental sustainability has been replicated in Lebanon and Syria through a recently concluded project implemented by the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN), according to the project’s director.

Launched in 2005, the Biodiversity Conservation through Ecotourism in the Mashreq Region project entailed using eco-tourism as a tool for preserving biodiversity and conducting environmental research, regional director Nasr Tamimi said.

The Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, which funded the project, selected the RSCN to implement and oversee the project in Lebanon and Syria because of its experience in ecotourism and successful management of eight nature reserves in the Kingdom, he added.

“Jordan’s experience in the Dana Biosphere Reserve, where eco-friendly income-generation projects were launched to sustain environmental protection programmes, has been the model used while working in Lebanon and Syria,” Tamimi told reporters yesterday.

In Lebanon, the RSCN helped an alliance of environmental NGOs implement ecoventures in the environmentally important areas of Akkar and Danyeh.

“We worked with the alliance to establish a national park in the area, in addition to guest houses and tourist camps which are managed by the local community,” Tamimi noted.

The RSCN also assisted Lebanese NGOs in rehabilitating wetlands in the Kfar Zabad Nature Reserve, while a centre in Ramleyeh area was developed into an environment-friendly complex for training NGO and media personnel in environmental issues and for receiving tourists.

Under the project, Lebanon’s first green building was built in the Ammiq Nature Reserve, to serve as a model for use of renewable energy and as a tourist centre including a nature shop and a café, according to Tamimi.

In Syria, an ecotourism project was carried out in Jaboul Lake, a major bird migration zone located 40 kilometres to the east of Aleppo.

“Jaboul Lake attracts millions of birds annually and is a very important location for bird watchers. A first of its kind survey of the lake and the bird species that migrate to and inhabit the area was carried out under the project,” Tamimi said.

He noted that efforts to build an ecolodge to attract ecotourists to the lake failed because the Syrian government did not designate a plot of land for constructing the facility.

Also under the project, the region’s first ecotourism and biodiversity conservation network was established to enhance communication among ecotourism and biodiversity conservation stakeholders, according to Tamimi.

The network currently includes 900 members from different countries, he noted.