مشروع البيئة المستدامة والتنمية الاقتصادية SEED Project

The vision for SEED is to achieve sustainable landscapes and communities through improved water catchment and infiltration using a sustainable approach that builds the capacities of local organizations to engage rural populations in natural resource stewardship. By the end of the third year of operation, SEED will have re-established native plant populations for watershed health and community uses and promoted long-term stewardship across the Badia by bringing together communities (traditional and non-traditional stakeholder groups, such as women, livestock producers, teachers, environmental advocates, Municipal leaders, etc) in natural resource management.

While landscape and watershed restoration through improved nursery practices are the main entry points for the project, it offers an array of crosscutting socio-economic benefits in an under served area of the country, especially one that has been hit hardest by the Syrian refugee crisis. Such benefits stem from the employment of local people, the promotion of science education and women in science, and the use of the nursery site as a platform for reaching out to communities and raising awareness of environmental issues. Taken together, these expected benefits constitute a brighter future for Jordan, for its arid watersheds, and for the continued harmony of communities that are dependent upon their natural resources.

Deploying community-based natural resource management programs in key communities in Jordan will result in broader watershed restoration and enhanced land management practices at the local level. This builds on a global body of literature that a decentralized approach to landscape rehabilitation is by far the most effective in the long-term. This is attributed largely to the understanding that communities must have a vested interest in the success of the plantations for them to thrive. When such programs are centrally imposed with few recognizable benefits to communities, there is little incentive for communities to protect the plants from fire, grazing, encroachment and over harvesting.