Land Degradation in the Sultanate of Oman: Reasons and Intervention Measures - Combating Desertification in Asia, Africa and the Middle East - page 398

(f) Access to commercial credit.
(g) Meanwhile the degradation continues, the deterioration will also continue,
and possible acceleration and production will fall still further. Eventually the
ecosystems will be so damaged that the changes are effectively irreversible over
time scale of years and decades. When that happens, the social and economic
effects could be as serious as those on the environment.
The study surveyed the range land zones: Qamar Zone (1,020 km 2 ) Qara zone
(1,506 km 2 ) and East Qarazon 1,266 km 2 .
The ecological survey mapped of vegetation zones and overgrazing state of
the range-land. The tall mixed grasslands of the moister parts of Jabal and the
woodlands on the steep slopes in the same areas are most important zones as range
resources. There are 678 km 2 of these grasslands and 622 km 2 of the associated
woodland, over 90 % of the vegetation was assessed as overgrazed. In places the
grass is removed completely and the ground is bare. Some areas of woodland are
heavily over-browsed that the trees are dying, particularly where the livestock are
gnawing the bark. There are about 155,000 cattle, 44,500 camels and 85,000 goats in
the area. The balance between the feed supplies and the requirements of the livestock
has been calculated with the cattle treated separately from goats and camels.

7.2 Pilot Study Project

Pilot study project for the use of modern simulation and interactive modeling
technique for design, optimization and viability assessment of efforts to combat
land degradation, in Dhofar. The objectives of the project are:-

(a) To make a theoretical pilot study of use of the modern simulation and interactive
modeling technique based on the concept of rain forest canopy and natural
environmental development.
(b) To establish the project as a resource base for training regional and sub-regional
cadres.

Dhofar region was chosen for this project because it presents a good example
of ecosystems under the process of degradation, and recent in the making, due to
excessive land use and overgrazing at the plateau and the plain on the sea-side
of the mountains. At the same time, however, the region receives a reasonable
amount of rain during the monsoon period (July - August and September) at the
seaside of the mountains, but diminishes drastically at the other side or ( Nejd ),
and towards the empty Quarter. The region thus presents an interesting area for
applying rehabilitation methodologies e.g. afforestation and appropriate land-use
policies and systems. Already a comprehensive study of land use in Dhofar has
been accomplished for the Government as mentioned by the firm Travers Morgan in
addition to other projects in the National Strategy Plan (NCS), and National Action