Celebrating 25 Years of Action for Biodiversity

The high number of birds — 436 is due to Jordan’s location along the migratory route between Eurasia and Africa. The marine environment maintains more than 510 marine fish species, 5 per cent of which are endemic [ ] 132 Ecosystem conservation — local honeybees and biodiversity Agriculture in Jordan is regionally focused on rain-fed wheat and barley on the plateau, and olives in the mountain areas, whereas intensely managed agricultural lands are situ- ated in the Jordan Valley. Several local breeds and varieties are becoming rare and some are even being threatened, such as the Jordanian native cattle breed, native Arabic horse, native chicken, Syrian donkey, Jordanian tomato, cucumber, squash, wheat, lentils, and barley. Conservation plans put in place for native land races of cereal and field crops are doing well. The Bee Research Department at NCARE confirmed, through its research, that the free benefits derived from pollination obtained by ecosystem services provided by endogenous insects, including the honeybee, improve productivity and quality. According to the outcomes of the studies, the value of ecosys- tem services provided by insects to 34 selected crops to the Jordanian economy was 33 per cent of the total value of those crops’ production, and the approximate value of estimation due to honeybee pollination was 27 per cent of their total value which was over 26 times more than the total value of Jordan’s domestic honey production. Self-sufficiency outcomes indicate that loss of insect pollination will directly affect at least 35 per cent of local crop production of those selected and that this will harm food security. Moreover, it is becoming evident that there is a crucial need to attract the attention of younger gen- erations to the value of honeybees in achieving food security and stability of ecosystem conservation. Due to the worldwide decline in the honeybee population, and the decreasing number of beekeepers, NCARE established a Bee Research Department which is mandated to conserve the local honeybees Apis m. syriaca, to study its behaviour, breed- ing, and selection. During the last 10 years the department distributed, for free, over 20,000 queens’ cells which had helped in the conservation of this important honeybee genetic resource. Further, the Department published four books and pamphlets; one of which was “Honeybees and Medici- nal Plants of Jordan” demonstrating the strong relationship between honeybees and wild flora. The programme also included a schools’ awareness campaign targeting 1,200 classes with over 42,000 students from as wide an audience as Jordan, Iraq and Palestine. J ordan embraces four biogeographic regions, namely: the Mediterranean, Irano-Turanian, Saharo-Arabian and Sudanian. The four regions comprise thirteen vegetation types which provide the natural habitats for over 4,000 species of fauna and flora from the terrestrial, marine and freshwater environments in addition to genetic resources. The country’s 2,622 species of vascular plants represent 1 per cent of the world flora. Jordan hosts 644 animal species of which, 83 are mammal, 436 birds, and 348 fish. Three new protected areas have been established since 2009 namely, Yarmouk, Fifa, Qatar, bringing the total to 11. Jordan hey tiffany! on flickr Jordan