Rehabilitation of a Historic Wetland - Restorative Redevelopment of Devastated Ecocultural Landscapes - page 89

FIGURE 7.11 ( Continued ) The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature's Azraq Oasis
Handicraft Center and various locally produced products.
of Water in exploring the use of alternative water sources, and to develop and main-
tain local community involvement in the reserve (Irani 2004). These locals are inter-
ested in developing sources of income that might arise from the wetland such as
ecotourism and the creation of products other than those originating from unsustain-
able agriculture (Figure 7.11). The RSCN looks at these income-generating activities
as tools for conservation that simultaneously reduce local poverty (as elaborated on
in chapter 16).
One more objective was to establish and maintain a team of staff who would be
able to implement the management plan effectively. This is the capacity-building
idea, dealing with both institutional and technical issues, as the RSCN are not them-
selves wetland experts (see chapter 12 for a similar example in South America).
Ecotourism became another objective based on the establishment and mainte-
nance of effective visitor management services and facilities such as boardwalks
and bird-viewing hides within the reserve that were constructed by RSCN staff with
local assistance (Figure 7.12), as well as the development of the long-term financial
viability of the reserve. In this regard, related objectives included ensuring that man-
agement activities within the reserve would be effectively spatially zoned, and that
the implementation of the management plan would be periodically reviewed.
A variety of achievement indicators demonstrate the success of the Azraq restoration
efforts (Irani 2004). Ten percent of the oasis has been restored and endemic species,
once threatened with extirpation, have been preserved. Others, such as the iconic water
buffalos, have been reintroduced (Figure 7.13). Many of the birds have come back for
feeding, resting, and nesting in the Azraq Wetland Reserve, and while they are not
in the same numbers as before, they are at least the same species (raptors, kingfish-
ers, herons, terns and gulls, and so on) that were once present. The Azraq Basin is