The projects, to be financed by compensation granted by the United Nations Compensation Committee (UNCC), are designed to protect and support biological diversity in the badia and revitalise plants, animals and soil following the 1991 Gulf War, which damaged the Kingdom’s water, environment, wildlife, marine life and agriculture.

The Kingdom will launch an “environmental roadmap” in April under which the projects will be implemented after obtaining approval from the UNCC, Environment Minister Khalid Irani told The Jordan Times yesterday.

“We have created proposals for 15 projects to be implemented under the environmental roadmap in various parts of the badia and sent them to the UNCC. The majority of them seek to curb random grazing and improve the badia ecosystem,” he added.

The Environment Ministry will implement the projects, which include socio-economic ventures that secure badia cattle breeders with a sustainable source of income and improve pastures by water harvesting schemes, while the Hashemite Fund for Badia Development will provide geographic information about the badia and share its expertise, according to its director general, Omar Rafie.

He told The Jordan Times that following the first Gulf War, “many shepherdsfrom neighbouring countries enteredJordan with millions of heads of cattle, which consumed thepastures andwater sources”.

More than 6 per cent of the country’s total population lives in the badia, Rafie noted.

According to Irani, the projects ultimately focus on returning the badia’s ecosystem to its status before 1990 and tackle the negative consequences of random grazing and wildlife deterioration.

The minister previously noted that regaining natural elements of the badia cannot be achieved without linking it to improving the living standards of badia residents, who rely on cattle breeding as a source of income.

In 1998, Jordan presented the incurred damages to the UNCC, which decided in 2005 to grant the country $160.5 million in compensation and $1.4 million to tackle the salinity of underground water basins.

The UNCC also extended compensation to other countries that suffered losses following the war including Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, but Jordan received the lion’s share of over $160 million of the total $252 million.

A subsidiary organ of the UN Security Council, the UNCC was established in 1991 to process claims and pay compensation for losses resulting from Iraq’s invasion and occupation of Kuwait, according to its website.