The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has issued a landmark report documenting the cost-effectiveness of investing in natural resource management and ecosystem restoration as a tool for adaptation to climate change. Evidence derived from many examples around the world prove the need to integrate this option in adaptation planning. Unfortunately the report lacks examples from the Arab world... [read more]

source: IRIN News   Jordan's plan to save the shrinking Dead Sea by channelling more water to it from the Red Sea could have a detrimental environmental impact, environmentalists have warned. However, not doing anything could lead to an environmental, economic and human catastrophe, say experts. Two water-related projects are currently being proposed in Jordan: the Red Sea-Dead Sea canal... [read more]

Source: The National   Vesela Todorova   The first step was recognition, but for Wadi Wurayah the hard work is still to come. It has been a month since the country’s first protected mountain area was established in Fujairah. But for the team behind the project there is a long way to go to preserve the area, one of the country’s richest and most diverse habitats. A big problem... [read more]

The Badia Research and Development Center (BRDC) in Jordan has recently launched its landmark publication "Jordan's arid Badia: deepening our understanding". The publication, edited by Rederic Dutton and Mohammad Shahbaz includes an exquisite scientific and practical journey into research and development for the Badia region conducted by the BRDC over the past 20 years. The publication has been commissioned... [read more]

Another sad reality of life in Iraq now, where the once famous rivers feel the implications of the devastating violence. Interpress news reports   By Dahr Jamail There is less water now in the Tigris, and it is less clean. The river has fewer fish, and rising fuel and other costs mean they are more costly to catch. It's not, as Hamza Majit finds, a good time to be a fisher. "It's... [read more]

One of the most promising environmental programmes in Jordan will start delivering results later this year. The Integrated Badia ecosystem restoration programme funded by the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) will launch its first demonstration projects in April 2009. This is the report from Jordan Times   By Hana Namrouqa   Implementation of projects seeking to improve... [read more]

Source: AP   A trek uphill from Jordan's scorching Dead Sea shore through the towering sandstone walls of the Mujib gorge leaves you with a pulse-racing way to get back down - strap into a harness and rappel down a waterfall into a sparkling river. Jordan, home of the ancient red-rock city of Petra, is reaching beyond its considerable historical and biblical tourist attractions to try... [read more]

TIME magazine has selected three environmental activists working together across political borders to save the Dead Sea as heroes of the environemnt 2008. Here is the article from TIME   The Holy Land is dying of thirst. Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian territories may once have been lands of milk and honey, but their fragile, semidesert ecosystem has been unable to withstand 60 years of overdevelopment,... [read more]