The Ministry of Environment has formed in July 2005 a committee of its staff to undergo the process of review of previous and current environment and development strategies, and perform a detailed content analysis of those strategies resulting in a suggested conceptual framework for a new Environmental Action Plan (NEAP) that will cover the period 2006-2012 The taskforce produced a final report... [read more]

      The World Conservation Union (IUCN) Regional office of WESCANA has coordinated an effort by the Tales of Water project to document the status of water in Zarqa River Basin in the eyes of children living there. The water story from Zarqa children can be read here   For more in-depth assessment of the environmental conditions of the Zarqa River Basin take a look at the following... [read more]

After three years of implementation as an interim (temporary) law, the environmental protection law has been finally endorsed by the Jordanian Parliament on Wednesday March 8th 2006. The session for discussing the law by the parliament was not dramatoc as all of the articles were approved at high speed except for article 6 that states penalties of environmental violators. The focus was on penalties... [read more]

Last year I have joined a team of five Arab researchers who worked on developing a regional study assessing the understanding of the UN "right to water" concept in the Arab World. A series of  four case studies were conducted on Jordan, Palestine, Egypt and Lebanon plus a combined comparative study.  The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights adopted in November 2003 a General Comment... [read more]

The Jordanian Environmental Monitor (JEM) will publish a series of thematic profile on major environmental issues in Jordan. The first of this series is about water. The information contained in this essay has been collected and processed from official and academic sources updated to the middle of 2005.   Jordan is classified among few countries of the world with limited water resources and it... [read more]

The Jordanian Society for Sustainable Development (JSSD) has established a new bird observatory in Aqaba. The area of Aqaba is known to be on the major attraction for migratory birds in Jordan. JSSD has signed last week an agreement with the GEF Small Grants Programme in Jordan to provide financial support of US$ 35,000 for the implementation of the educational and awareness programme of the Aqaba... [read more]

Minister of Agriculture Akef Zoubi stated in a conference last week that Jordan loses around 30,000 donums of fertile lands annually due to desertification. This has big consequences on sustainable land management in Jordan. The Ministry of Environment will publish within a month the National Strategy to Combat Desertification but it is vital that this strategy be endorsed by the cabinet to be empowered... [read more]

The annual Environmental Performance Index 2006report has been published last month by the by the Center for Environmental Law & Policyat Yale University and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network(CIESIN) at Columbia University in collaboration with  the World Economic Forum. This report analyses the environmental performance of countries based on various policy indicators... [read more]

Article by: Batir Wardam   Just like a new sequel in a boring movie, the long-awaited Disi water conveyor project, aiming to transfer drinking water from the Disi aquifer south of Jordan to the thirsty capital Amman is back to sqaure one. Last week the government has decided to go back to the option of BOT (Build, Operate and Transfer) methodology for soliciting interests from investors to... [read more]

A lot of debate has been gaining momentum last week on the controversial import of Ukrainian steel thought to be originating from the Chernobyl nuclear reactor. The quistionable steel import shipment was put under scrutiny by local media based on a report submitted to the Jordanian Embassy in Moscow from a russian citizen who is leading a society of friendship between the people of the Middle East... [read more]

Yes it is really true this time. The Ministry of Environment is currently going through a vital process of reform in many aspects including strategic planning. Since May 2005 the Ministry has developed and implemented a process of "participatory consultation" between its staff for the very first time in the Ministry. This process which has been conducted by holding several consultation meetings between... [read more]