Biodiversity Conservation through Ecotourism

An interesting regional project is trying to incorporate the values of biodiversity conservation in ecotourism projects in three Arab countries: Jordan, Syria and Lebanon through the replication of the Dana Wild life Reserve- Ecotourism model in Jordan.

The aim of the BCTE project is to contribute to biodiversity conservation and at the same time to contribute to poverty alleviation through employment and ongoing income generation by stimulating eco-tourism as an income source and vehicle for community and institutional development.

The project combines four objectives: capacity building, networking, developing local projects and alliance building and policy development. These objectives influence each other and have an optimal impact in their combination. For the development of the training courses, the widely recognized DACUM method which is known for the development of curricula together with and within enterprises in the production sector will be applied in an innovative way to service institutions and the training of institutional development specialists.

The project website http://www.bcte.org is a rich collection of information and resources. There is a nice description and definition of ecotourism as well as awareness tips for ecotourists and photo galleries of ecotourism sites in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. The website may benefit from more analytical descriptions of the various ecotourism experiences in the three countries to give it more substantial context.