FAO reviews plans to protect Jordan's forests

On the occasion of Arbor Day, the office of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations "FAO" has inspected a forest named after FAO in Jerash and reviewed plans to protect the country’s scarce forests.

The staff toured the forest, which was allocated for FAO in 2014, when Jordan hosted the 21st session of the Near East Forestry and Range Commission (NEFRC). They took note of the state of the forest and reviewed plans to stop urban and agricultural encroachment on the site, planted with conifers, wild almonds, eucalyptus and acorns.

In coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture, Amman FAO office has developed plans to increase the number of trees in the forest and protect it against illegal logging, fire incidents and overgrazing.

The protection of forests and expanding them fall within FAO's second strategic goal “Make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable." Under this objective, FAO supports the government in shifting towards a "green national economy," in a country suffering from dwindling forestation, estimated at 88,000 hectares, less than 1% of its overall area.

In 2015, the organization provided technical support to the Ministry of Agriculture under its Technical Cooperation Project (TCP) with the aim of "supporting and developing Jordanian national forest policies." The support provided for developing a solid forestry policy through the inclusion of local committees as part of the cooperation between the public and private sectors.

 In this context, FAO sponsored in 2018 the drawing of a policy paper on national forestry. The paper, prepared by the Ministry of Agriculture, was designed to achieving sustainable integrated development through updating pertinent legal, administrative, and financial frameworks.

Forest protection is a pillar of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 15: “Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss”.