Sustainable Development and Nature Conservation in Jordan - Restorative Redevelopment of Devastated Ecocultural Landscapes - page 311

FIGURE 16.10 ( Continued ) Ancient slag heaps and shaft openings of copper mines located
in Wadi Feynan into which Wadi Dana runs.

than being the first objective in itself (Irani 2004). And people are certainly coming
to recognize the success of the program. In fact, the government has recently defined
its own tourism strategy, and for the first time in an official document, ecotourism and
adventure tourism are listed as recommended approaches to be used in Jordan.
Working from the business perspective, the Wild Jordan Café was opened in
the heart of Amman to sell all the projects (Figure 16.12). Marketing was quickly
realized to be the key strategy in order to compete with other attractive products
being created by other companies in Jordan. The strategy here was that, because in
any large national capital, citizens rarely go out into the countryside for nature, the
RSCN would instead bring nature to them. Nature conservation is promoted through
the sale of products. By coming to the marketing center, people learn about nature,
they buy the nice products, and they know that by buying the product they are sup-
porting both nature conservation and the local economy (Irani 2004). The marketing
center also has a restaurant (Figure 16.13) in which Jordanians have another opportu-
nity to learn about their country's natural resources at nightly events about nature. In
this respect, the RSCN, through the many varied activities that occur at the market-
ing center, is reaching urban Jordanians who they had previously never hoped would
become interested in nature.
The chairman of the World Commission on Protected Areas believes that nothing
short of a revolution is needed in the way protected areas are regarded. In particular,
it is only through developing a program of capacity building that this can be brought
about. Such areas should be treated

• not as places shut away from the rest of society but instead as places valued

for their contributions to society,