Claim 5000304 – Cooperative Rangeland Restoration
Following numerous revisions, Jordan NFP submitted a Community Action Plan (CAP) to the Governing Council in 2013 that was supported by the Secretariat and the Independent Reviewers. The CAP meets the objectives of the award and is a cooperative plan seeking to apply the appropriate biophysical and technical measures needed to restore the degraded rangeland in the Jordan Badia. It involves the local community in the implementation and in establishing and running a sustainable grazing management system. The majority of the components under the CAP are projected to be completed by 2020 with some of the long term, renewable projects continuing into the future.
The CAP consists of three main components:
- A biophysical component entitled ‘Integrated watershed management’ that enhances the water security of the Badia rangelands and provides an opportunity for the fodder crops to grow, rangelands to recover and the biodiversity to return;
- A socio-economic component entitled ‘Integrated livestock and socio-economic management’ that provides care for the livestock, packages of incentives that motivate and support the herdsmen to cooperate in the rangeland restoration efforts and that builds capacity within their community for sustainable development of rangeland resources;
- An integrated component that utilizes the principles of both of the above to establish a system of ‘sustainable fodder crop production’, which is managed and utilized by the community through cooperatives.
The Integrated Watershed Management component of the CAP aims at enhancing the water security of the Badia rangelands through macro and micro catchment water harvesting interventions, improvement of ecosystem productivity through plantation of indigenous fodder shrubs, improvement of the rangeland vegetation cover and improvement of biodiversity through managed grazing practices, such as resting and protection. In all, 12 watersheds disbursed over the entire Badia rangelands have been identified for development. The project finally envisages developing 80 rainwater harvesting ponds in the rangelands, three earth dams to impound water in critical areas and wide use of contour furrowing in the watershed areas for water conservation.
The Integrated Livestock and Socio-economic Management Component aims at providing feed and veterinary incentives to the herdsmen to improve livestock productivity and enables community development through capacity building and awareness programmes. The project provides regular barley handouts to sections of the herdsmen as an incentive to encourage them not to take their herds for grazing in the watershed areas that are designated for resting and recovery. In addition, the project also provides wide veterinary support to ensure the health and welfare of the sheep and includes measures to strengthen the capacity of Bedouin communities in acquiring skills for supplementary occupations, such as cheese making, dairying, farming, etc.
The Sustainable Fodder Crop Production component envisages to raise the height of an existing dam to increase water impoundment and earmark 1600 hectares of treasury land to which a guaranteed amount of water from the dam could be guaranteed to grow irrigated fodder crops. Necessary irrigation infrastructure will also be provided and the rangeland community will be involved in producing fodder crop in a sustainable manner for a long period of time. This programme will also serve as a socio-economic incentive guarantee to the people of the Badia rangelands, encouraging them to rest the rangelands for full recovery.