It begins with a weathered pickup truck carrying a group of visitors down a beaten and winding trail. The road is bumpy and the driver shouts for them to “hold on!” as they continue to speed downhill, past the blur of dirt, rock and shrubbery of southern Jordan. It comes suddenly; the Rummana campsite emerges abruptly amidst a hilly landscape. White tents sit side-by-side, surrounding a stretched Bedouin tent, together they rest on the tip of a plateau that is at the heart of this nature reserve overlooking the Jordan Valley rift. The scene is truly breathtaking, as hills converge upon the campsite like faded mountains in the distance, yet, lying close enough for a hike. It feels like an isolated and sacred place, but there are roughly half a dozen sites just like this one scattered all across the Kingdom’s serene landscapes. From Dana, Rummana and the Al Azraq Lodge, to the cabins of Ajloun, the eco-lodges of Feynan and chalets of Mujib, just to name a few, these sites now represent what has come to be a contemporary trend in the local tourism sector: eco-tourism.

Few people would know it, but Jordan today stands as an eco-tourism leader and, indeed, a trailblazer in the entire region. The bold model for sustainable development in this emerging alternative sector is spearheaded by the RSCN and carried out by its eco-tourism implementing division, Wild Jordan, whose base of operations is entwined with a rather popular eco-friendly café situated at the tip of downtown Amman. Together, along with promotion from the Jordan Tourism Board, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, as well as various eco-friendly tour operators in the country, they have so far created an alternative market to the mainstream tourist sites of Jordan, which typically include Petra, Jerash and Aqaba. Without a doubt, the endeavor to create a different kind of tourism has been quite successful, as the model brought in just over 40,000 visitors in 2007, with that number expected to be outmatched this year.

Environmental Concepts
The idea for eco-tourism projects emerged in the early 1990s with the Dana area being the primary focus. According to Yehya Khaled, director general of the RSCN, the organization, while fully dedicated to the preservation of biodiversity in Jordan, realized that such a goal could not be achieved without linking biodiversity to economic development, with eco-tourism being one of the few sustainable utilizations of biodiversity.  “The RSCN does not see eco-tourism as an objective, but rather, as a tool,” says Khaled. “Eco-tourism focuses on small numbers with high value, whereby visitors will end up paying more to enjoy a completely unique experience that enables them to explore nature in protected areas.”

With more than 50% of visitors being Jordanians, eco-tourism has emerged as a powerful and unique experience for both local and foreign tourists. Indeed, these days it is difficult to find a vacancy at most of Wild Jordan’s sites, which, given their limited capacity and high demand, boast a very high occupancy rate, especially amongst the more adventurous young Jordanian segment of society. Unfortunately, not every Jordanian has had the opportunity to visit these sites.

“When we started 15 years ago, the idea was to look at ways to bring economic benefits to protected areas, and our first project, at Dana, taught us many lessons on how to develop a sustainable model,” says Chris Johnson, director of Wild Jordan. “By appealing to both Jordanians and foreigners, this has meant that a section of society is excluded, but we are working on new ways to resolve this issue. For example, we have been thinking of mechanisms such as ‘open days’ or ‘low seasons,’ where locals that could not otherwise afford to enter these sites can have free access or enjoy preferential rates.”

Meanwhile, the lessons of the Dana reserve have helped the RSCN and Wild Jordan develop a sustainable model for eco-tourism in Jordan; a model they are keen on exporting to neighboring countries such as Syria and Lebanon, in tailored eco-tourism projects.

Developing A Sustainable Model
In the context of time, environmental entrepreneurship is still somewhat of a new concept in Jordan. Yet, the RSCN and Wild Jordan have become trailblazers in the emerging sub-sector, having been at the forefront of developing a sustainable model in Jordan for years now. The idea has consisted of a two-fold approach: to conserve these sites while promoting them as viable tourist destinations, as well as ensuring a people-centered and community-focused philosophy. In developing these sites and reserves, community involvement is a key factor for Wild Jordan, as it makes sure that those employed at the sites are locals, while goods and services supporting the sites are also purchased locally. “We have a policy that 100% of those employed are locals,” said Johnson. “It is the local people who must be the main beneficiaries, in line with our definition of eco-tourism.” Indeed, direct employment in all of Wild Jordan’s developed sites currently totals roughly 200. However, the domino effect encompasses a much larger amount, extending to the local market where the sites do most of their shopping.

Upon developing a potential site, the RSCN and Wild Jordan conduct socio-economic surveys of the local community, studying the various elements that are involved in their livelihood and targeting new opportunities that the site could provide for them. Everything is considered, from agricultural usage of the land to goat grazing.

Local skill-sets are also identified and further developed, leading to the production and sale of specialized products that include locally-produced handicrafts, jams, and oils. Suffice it to say, the trickle-down effect is an attempt to protect not only the land, but also to help its surrounding community to economically thrive, providing its members with an additional source of income. This is to say nothing of the increased number of visitors to some of these remote locations, which directly and indirectly helps to promote local business.

Developing such a unique and unprecedented model in the region has meant using generated revenue to sustain it. From covering running costs and maintaining the facilities to protecting land, all the money that is generated is essentially reinvested into the projects. Last year, roughly JD600,000 were generated from Wild Jordan’s five different sites, managing to pay for around 50% of running costs, with that figure reaching as high as 75% in the more-developed Dana reserve. The rest of the costs are covered through an endowment fund that is invested in the market, in addition to fundraising events and donor support.

“While the facilities themselves are profitable - as we don’t subsidize them - most of the money goes into protecting the very land that makes up the reserve,” says Johnson. “These protected areas can be quite large. For instance, Dana is an area of 320 square kilometers, which is nearly the same size of Gaza,” he explains, stating that this year the center is targeting JD800,000 in revenues.
 
According to Khaled, the emphasis on the ideals of eco-tourism within these sites has also allowed many visitors to feel that they are not only paying to enjoy themselves, but are also making a viable contribution to the very protection of these very sites.

National Criteria
RSCN’s eco-tourism projects are essentially based on a public-private partnership, whereby the management of these protected areas is delegated to the organization through a special act of parliament. However, as many environmentalists have argued, eco-tourism is a concept not limited to merely specialized projects, but rather environmentally-conscious ideals that must be embedded across the board into the business culture. These ideals are even more important when considering Jordan’s desire to become a major tourism destination in the region; a desire that has unfortunately meant an unofficial policy of making serious environmental concessions to multi-national tourism-oriented companies looking to set up shop in Jordan by establishing luxurious resorts and hotels.

Such concessions have led to a clash between environmentalists and the private sector, with one such collision taking place over the Dibbin forest over a year ago.  A mega-tourism complex project in the Dibbin forest, then proposed by Jordan Dubai Capital (JDC), faced serious negative reactions from environmentalists and the area’s local community, while others felt the project would help in resolving such local problems as high poverty and rampant unemployment. Fortunately, the Ministry of Environment and JDC managed to resolve the crisis by changing the project’s location, diverting it away from the natural forest, which continues to be a reserve operated by the RSCN. The proposed project was scaled down to a more eco-friendly size, focusing on the RSCN model of “low numbers but high value.”  The short-lived controversy was, indeed, a landmark case for eco-tourism in Jordan. According to environmentalist Batir Wardam, had JDC managed to bypass the system and implement the project despite the public outcry, it would have created a dangerous precedent for other private-sector companies to follow suit.

The case has only highlighted the need for creating a national criterion regarding eco-tourism and general environmentally-friendly practices that are applied across the board. In an industry where the key players - ranging from civil-society organizations such as the RSCN and Wild Jordan, to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the Ministry of Environment and the private sector - all have differing definitions for what eco-tourism is, and what it represents, a common definition must be found. Moreover, having witnessed the success of the Wild Jordan model, many private-sector companies are beginning to enter the arena of eco-tourism, and with differing views on what eco-tourism entails, this seems to only further call into attention the need for such criteria. “We need to have national certification through a neutral party,” Khaled argues. “Many of the tourism projects we see in destinations such as the Dead Sea are destroying national assets and leaving a major negative imprint on the area. There has been a sacrifice made in the name of encouraging intensive tourism,” he asserts, arguing that eco-tourism has the potential to contribute more to the local community and the Jordanian economy more generally than mainstream tourist projects.

When it comes to applying a standardized national criterion, Johnson argues that the country is lacking a clear vision to be translated through the industry. “There is no national system for recycling,” says Johnson. “You don’t see hotels take a lead role in this. Where is their contribution to energy conservation? Where is their commitment to solar power?” he maintains. 

While the RSCN and Wild Jordan’s first eco-tourism project, the Dana reserve, still operates primarily on diesel, solar panels now fuel the new Feynan eco-lodge, providing both hot water and some electricity. The organization has continued to develop its model by adopting new ways to address energy problems in such remote destinations. This has been especially true when it comes to dealing with waste management, and what is called “grey water.” For this purpose, the Dana reserve has definitely provided a unique learning experience for the organization, something that perhaps even large-scale operators cannot claim to have done.

According to Nayef Al-Fayez, managing director of the Jordan Tourism Board (JTB), the government could play a vital role in providing a potential incentive-based mechanism for the private sector to encourage them to adopt environmentally-sound principles, which he feels will inevitably leave a positive impact on the economy.  “If you look at this from a business perspective, recycling, for instance, is cost-saving,” says Al-Fayez. “Companies, including five-star hotels, need to look at marketing their environmentally-friendly side, as foreign tourists do respect establishments who have a social conscience.”

The Future Is Long-Term
Sustaining the eco-tourism sub-sector will, without a doubt, require a great deal of support from various partnerships, including local- and international-tour operators, the private sector, and government agencies such as JTB. According to Al-Fayez, eco-tourism has become a primary product that the Board is currently marketing in order to meet the rising worldwide demand for such sites and what they have to offer.  “The main attention has always been on the historical and cultural sites,” claims Al-Fayez. “So we are trying to draw the attention of tourists to the fact that we do have other products, such as eco-tourism, on offer.”

The marketing model is apparently dependent on “bundling” low-key, eco-tourism sites with the more mainstream historical attractions, such as Petra. “We want to see the sub-sector being developed as a major product that will allow tourists to visit Dana just as frequently as they would [visit] Petra,” states Khaled, outlining the RSCN’s long-term vision for the promotion of eco-tourism in Jordan. “This could involve linking the various sites through transportation, allowing mainstream tourism and eco-tourism to complement each other.”

While the capacity of such sites may be limited, Al-Fayez has argued that all the key players involved in their promotion, including JTB, must be cautious of reaching a saturation level that may actually endanger the sites, defeating the very purpose of their continued conservation. This task may become increasingly difficult with the private sector taking a greater interest in this emerging niche market. Wild Jordan has also been looking to bring the private sector into eco-tourism, with a possible model being set up whereby the organization concessions out their lodges to certain companies. However, according to Johnson, such ideas remain dependent on various key factors currently being resolved.  “One of the reasons we haven’t fully gone down the private-sector route is because we have to find a formula where the private sector can contribute as much to conservation as we do,” claims Johnson. “At the end of the day, we are a nature-conservation organization and eco-tourism is simply a means to an end. The move to a more private-sector model means we have to ensure that both the community and protected areas are being benefiting first and foremost.”

As eco-tourism continues to evolve in Jordan, the terrain may prove to be increasingly difficult to tread. The need for a national criterion that places both standards in the market and defines exactly what eco-tourism in Jordan entails is not in doubt. What can be questioned, however, is whether or not creating a model to manage the balance between the private sector’s inherent desires to earn profits in a new sub-sector that revolves around an environment-first philosophy will be just as difficult a task.