Mainstreaming biodiversity conservation in tourism sector development in Jordan

The aim of the project is to reduce the impact of tourism on biodiversity in Jordan and it will intervene at three levels. At the national level, it will develop a regulatory and enforcement framework to reduce the impact of tourism on biodiversity, centrally (upstream); components will be piloted at the local level, assessed and refined before being adopted nationally and made available for replication and up-scaling.At the regional/landscape level, the project will target public awareness and sensitivity of the value of biodiversity as a tourism drawcard and institutional capacity for planning, monitoring and enforcement so as to manage the impacts of tourism development inside and outside formally protected areas. At the Protected Area site level, the project will work to enhance capacity and management effectiveness of PAs so as to reduce impacts on protected biodiversity and benefit from nature-based tourism and ecotourism. More specifically, the Project Objective is: Biodiversity conservation objectives are effectively mainstreamed and advanced into and through tourism sector development in Jordan.

Achievements 

• The project inception phase is concludedProject coordination unit and field stations are set up.
• The initiation of the legal framework for the tourism sector review is underway.
• The initiation of the strategic environmental assessment and environmental impact assessment review is underway.
• The land use planning program (phase one) is ready for implementation.