Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
sustainable tourism. The nurturing of traditional crafts and the rejuvenation of a vil-
lage economy by creating an array of long-term jobs for local people have managed
to proceed successfully hand-in-hand with active protection of the environment.”
Given the pre-Saddam importance of sustainable agriculture in communities located
on the edges of the Iraqi marshes as well as the age-old tradition of marketing crafts
by dwellers from deep within the marshes (Ochsenschlager 1995, 2004), the Dana
Nature Reserve is a model that could be transferred to Iraq. It is to here, in this small
location in neighboring Jordan with the RSCN's landmark creation and development
of a sustainable local economy in association with nature protection and ecotour-
ism, where I think those involved in the future management of the Iraqi marshlands
should turn for inspiration and instruction. In order to make this point, it is worth
quoting Teller's (1998) independent summary of the Dana project before we return to
Khalid Irani, the former director of the RSCN, for his more detailed description:
Dana lay semi-abandoned for a decade or more, its handful of impoverished farmers
forced to compete in the local markets with bigger farms using more advanced meth-
ods of production. This was what a group of twelve women from Amman discovered
in the early 1990s as they traveled across the country to catalogue the remnants of
traditional Jordanian culture. Realizing the deprivation faced by some of the poor-
est people in the country, these “Friends of Dana” embarked on a project to renovate
and revitalize the fabric of the village under the auspices of the RSCN. Electricity,
telephones and a water supply were extended to the village and 65 cottages renovated.
People started to drift back to Dana. The RSCN quickly realized the potential of the
secluded Wadi Dana for scientific research, and, in a new $3.3 million project funded
partly by the World Bank and the UN, turned the area into a protected reserve, built
a small research station next to the village and, in 1994, launched a detailed ecologi-
cal survey. Dana's small-scale agriculture was clearly no longer economically viable
and thousands of domesticated goats, sheep and camels had overgrazed the wadi for
decades; continued grazing couldn't be reconciled with the need for environmental
protection and was banned, and studies were made into the feasibility of creating
sustainable opportunities for villagers to gain a livelihood from the reserve without
destroying it. The ingenious solution came in redirecting the village's traditional crops
to a new market. Dana's farmers produced their olives, figs, grapes, other fruits and
nuts as before, but, instead of going to market, they sold everything to the RSCN,
who employed Dana villagers to process these crops into novelty products such as
organically produced jams and olive-oil soap for direct sale to relatively wealthy, envi-
ronmentally aware consumers. Medicinal herbs were introduced as a cash crop to aid
the economic recovery, and the last Dana resident familiar with traditional pottery-
making has been encouraged to teach her craft to a younger generation. Dana soon
hit the headlines, and in 1996 the RSCN launched low-impact tourism to the reserve,
with the traditional-style Guesthouse going up next to the research buildings. Local
villagers—some of whom were already employed as research scientists—now also
work as managers and guides.
The Dana Nature Reserve is an area of 320 km 2 surrounded by a handful of
villages having a population of about six thousand, including some Bedouin com-
munities located inside the protected area. The first survey conducted dealt with
socioeconomics even before flora and fauna (Irani 2004). Work initiated in the mid-
Search WWH ::




Custom Search