Sustainable Tourism in Jordan: Dana Biosphere Reserve and Wild Jordan Initiative

The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) aims to create, manage and advocate for a national network of protected areas to conserve Jordan's biodiversity and support local community development, while also promoting wider public support and action for the protection of the natural environment within Jordan and neighboring countries. In 1994, funded by the GEF, the RSCN took pioneering steps in its attempt to conserve the precious biodiversity in Dana, putting together the first protected area management plan in Jordan, and making Dana Biosphere Reserve into a model of integrated conservation and socio-economic development. The plan set objectives, strategies and priorities, that ultimately seek to find a balance between protecting Dana's natural wonders and meeting the needs of local people. It was mostly based on the concept of zoning – called Special Conservation Areas- cordons off areas from hunting and overgrazing, while compensating the agrarian economy by introducing alternative livelihoods. The revolutionary people centered approach in the Dana Biosphere Reserve near Petra implied working directly with local village and Bedouin communities. Income generating projects were created for the use of the Reserve's natural beauty and wildlife to generate employment opportunities and alternative livelihoods. These included small handicraft enterprises, like the famous “Dana Jewelry”, and a range of tourism facilities, including campsite, guesthouse and eco-lodge. - In 2003, and replicating the Dana approach, Wild Jordan was created as the “business arm” to supervise and manage these socio-economic programs, and for the development of socio-economic programs in all of Jordan's nature reserves. The main purpose is to develop viable nature-based businesses within and around RSCN's protected areas in order to bring tangible economic and social benefits to local communities and generate financial, political, and popular support for nature conservation throughout the Kingdom. As protected areas are costly to run, RSCN charges entrance fees at all its sites. The income from these fees and from tourism and crafts goes directly to support conservation programs and local people. Among the small businesses created to date are hand-crafted silver jewellery, organic jarns and fruit leathers, painted ostrich eggs, sandblasted frames, environmental board games, natural 100% olive oils and goat leather nature boxes. The RSCN and its network of nature reserves has been supported by a series of World Bank-implemented Global Environmental Fund (GEF) projects over the past 15 years, in addition to USAID funding and UNDP-implemented grants. - By promoting eco-tourism, the scheme has provided much needed job opportunities and market for local products, bringing economic stability to some of Jordan's poorest rural communities. - To date, RSCN has received several global awards for its success in alleviating poverty and creating job opportunities for local communities, in combination with integrating nature conservation. - Dana today is firmly on the “tourism map of Jordan”, attracting over 30.000 visitors a year; and it has won four International awards for sustainable development. - At the present Wild Jordan manages innovative income generating programs that build on locally available skills and products and on the tourism potential of nature reserves. - Thriving eco-tourism and handicraft enterprises have been established. Such ventures are making nature conservation important to the lives of local communities, while providing alternatives to hunting and overgrazing, which continue to pose threats to wildlife habitats.