Jordan Times
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
Queen opens Ajloun Nature
Reserve
By Rami Abdelrahman
AJLOUN — Her Majesty Queen Rania on Tuesday inaugurated the Ajloun Nature
Reserve, a project that makes environmental protection a means for building
sustainable community development in the impoverished northern governorate.
The pioneer eco-tourism project was launched by collective efforts from the
Jordan River Foundation (JRF) and the Royal Society for the Conservation of
Nature (RSCN), as a first step to promote eco-tourism in Ajloun, making forestry
and tourism main employers for the local inhabitants of the area.
According to the JRF, the initiative should encourage similar projects
throughout the country, building a corporate identity for each governorate and
its traditional products, and developing eco-tourism activities as a means of
supporting conservation programmes and providing job opportunities for the local
community.
A source at the RSCN told The Jordan Times that the reserve is currently
employing “tens” of people directly to work within its area, and that the plan
would provide employment opportunities for families of the surrounding areas in
the near future.
The main jobs available at present include tourist guides, night watchmen,
farmers and forest keepers, in addition to administrative workers.
Queen Rania yesterday toured the main areas of the reserve including the camping
facilities, which include 10 cabins with room for 40 tourists, a restaurant with
a view over the reserve, a visitor information centre, a research centre and a
handicraft production centre whose designs are inspired by Ajloun's natural
environment.
With a total budget of nearly JD200,000 donated by the Spanish Agency for
International Cooperation in cooperation with “RESCATE” and the Japanese
embassy, the donor bodies expressed their pride in being part of such a pioneer
initiative.
The Queen also viewed traditional products, which will now be marketed
throughout the Kingdom through a joint effort by the JRF and the National Fund
for the Development of Enterprises, as part of a wider plan to improve living
conditions in the mainly-agricultural governorate.
Thyme, embroidered dresses and handicrafts are among the products that will be
marketed nationwide.
Several women's cooperative societies in the north have complained repeatedly
about not finding effective channels to market their products.
Queen Rania, the chairperson of JRF, assured Um Iskandar, an Ajloun farmer in
her sixties and a mother of three university students, that her homemade thyme
products would find appropriate markets in the near future. Currently the RSCN
sells Ajloun thyme in its Wild Jordan Caf?.
The Queen also launched a new RSCN website that focuses on migrating birds in
the region and seeks to educate children on the different varieties of birds and
their migratory patterns.
The Ajloun Reserve is located in 12,000 dunums of forest. It has more than 200
plant species, 30 medicinal plant species, eight scavenger species and 40
species of birds. Enjoying the highest rainfall rate in Jordan, Ajloun is a
haven of rolling hills covered by dense woodlands of evergreen oak and scattered
pistachio, carob and wild strawberry tress. Rich in natural, agricultural and
human resources and known for its revered historic and religious significance,
Ajloun promises great tourism potential.
The RSCN and the JRF are highlighting Ajloun's richness in agricultural and
human resources and its historic and religious significance in an effort to
market it as a tourist spot. Recently, the government subsidised a travel
package, “Ajloun Summer,” to encourage domestic tourism. Visitors paid JD8 for
an overnight stay in a two-star hotel, two-way transportation, three meals, a
tour of the area and a visit to the area's main tourism attraction, Al Rabad
Castle.