Download [Draft]Monograph of Jordan-MENA-DELP

MENA-DELP Regional Project
« MENA Desert Ecosystems and Livelihoods knowledge sharing
and coordination Project »
In support to Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia
Land Cover Thematic Atlas of North Africa & Jordan
MENA-DELP Project
Monograph of Jordan
Table of contents
1
Geographical features ..................................................................................................................... 3
2
Environmental context.................................................................................................................... 3
3
4
2.1
Water resources...................................................................................................................... 3
2.2
Soil resources .......................................................................................................................... 4
2.3
Main ecosystems .................................................................................................................... 4
2.4
Flora ........................................................................................................................................ 4
2.5
Fauna ....................................................................................................................................... 4
2.6
Fishery resources .................................................................................................................... 4
2.7
Mining resources..................................................................................................................... 5
2.8
Energy resources ..................................................................................................................... 5
Main environmental issues and challenges .................................................................................... 5
3.1
Land degradation .................................................................................................................... 5
3.2
Climate changes ...................................................................................................................... 6
3.3
Desertification......................................................................................................................... 6
Socio-economic activities................................................................................................................ 6
4.1
Agriculture: ............................................................................................................................. 6
4.2
Fishing ..................................................................................................................................... 7
4.3
Mining: .................................................................................................................................... 7
4.4
Tourism: .................................................................................................................................. 7
4.5
Industry ................................................................................................................................... 7
MENA-DELP Project
Monograph of Jordan
1 Geographical features
Jordan is an Arab kingdom in Western Asia, on the East Bank of the Jordan River. Jordan is bordered
by Saudi Arabia to the east and south, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north, Israel, Palestine and
the Dead Sea to the west and the Red Sea in its extreme south-west.
The country can be divided into four physiographic regions1:




The Jordan Rift Valley (JRV) along the western border of the country, with a total area of
around 5 000 km2, starts at Lake Tiberias in the north (212 m below sea level) and continues
south through the Jordan Valley into the Dead Sea on the Israeli–Jordanian border (417 m
below sea level). From the Dead Sea southwards, the Rift is occupied by the Wadi Araba, then
the Gulf of Aqaba, and then the Red Sea.
The Highlands to the east of JRV, with a total area of around 5 000 km2, run from north to
south. They consist of ranges of mountains and plains at an altitude between 600 and 1 600
m above sea level and numerous side wadis sloping towards the Jordan Rift Valley.
The plains, with a total area of around 10 000 km2, extend from north to south along the
western borders of the Al-Badiah desert region.
The Al-Badiah desert region in the east, with a total area of around 69 000 km2, is an extension
of the Arabian Desert.
The climate in Jordan varies greatly. The highlands above the Jordan Valley and mountains of the Dead
Sea are dominated by a Mediterranean climate, while the eastern and northeastern areas of the
country are arid desert.
The population of Libya was estimated at 7 594 547 in 2015 with a growth rate of 2.4%. The population
density in Jo was 86 per Km2 in 20152.
2 Environmental context
2.1 Water ressources
Total internal renewable water resources are estimated at 682 million m3/year. Surface water
resources are unevenly distributed among 15 basins. River flows are generally of a flash-flood nature,
with large seasonal and annual variation. The largest source of external surface water is the Yarmouk
River, which enters from the Syrian Arab Republic after first forming the border with it. It then joins
the Jordan River coming from Israel, taking its name.
Jordan’s groundwater is distributed among twelve major basins, ten of which are renewable
groundwater basins and two in the southeast of the country fossil groundwater aquifers. Total internal
renewable groundwater resources have been estimated at 450 million m3/year, of which 253 million
m3/year constitute the base flow of the rivers.
Most of Jordan’s water resources are shared with other countries.
1
http://www.fao.org/nr/water/aquastat/countries_regions/Profile_segments/JOR-GeoPop_esp.stm
2
http://donnees.banquemondiale.org/pays/jordanie
Octobre 2016
3
MENA-DELP Project
Monograph of Jordan
2.2 Soil resources
Out of the total area of Jordan, only 400 000 ha are cultivated, 61% lie within municipal and village
boundaries. 322 000 ha rainfed agriculture land and 78 000 ha irrigated agriculture land. 36 thousand
ha in Jordan Rift Valley and 42 000 ha in high land. The country’s best soils are found in the Jordan
Valley and in the area southeast of the Dead Sea.
2.3 Main ecosystems
At the intersection of three continents, Jordan encapsulates various differentiated ecosystems. These
ecosystems include deserts (Badia) with poor plant cover; sub-tropical ecosystems, including Sudanian
species of tree and dwarf shrub prominent in the sparse and very open vegetation; aquatic
ecosystems, comprised of rivers, wades and wetlands, the latter varying from salt marshes to marine
ecotypes; and the scarp and highland ecosystems, comprising of escarpments and mountains, hills
and undulating plateaus with natural woodland (Pinus, evergreen/deciduous oak woodland) and
steppe, the latter consisting of a transitional area where desert biota is gradually replaced by
“Mediterranean” biota3.
2.4 Flora
Jordan has a range of biodiverse habitats and over 2500 species of plant have been recorded in the
country; this includes about 150 plant families and 700 genera. Just three of these are gymnosperms;
Aleppo pine, Mediterranean cypress and Phoenecian juniper. Somewhere between five and ten
species of ferns have been recorded, as well as about 150 species of fungi and lichen. Many of the
flowering plants bloom in the spring after the winter rains and the type of vegetation depends largely
on the amount of precipitation. The mountainous regions in the northwest are clothed in natural
forests of pine, deciduous oak, evergreen oak, pistachio and wild olive. Further south and east, the
vegetation becomes more scrubby and merges into a steppe-type vegetation, and the center and east
of the country are largely hamada, a hard desert plateau with little sand.
2.5 Fauna
The harsh conditions of the desert wilderness, which covers most of the country, allow only a few of
nature's most adaptable creatures to survive. Fauna in Jordan consists mainly of insects, lizards, and
small mammals. However, a number of larger mammals can be found in the desert region, including
the Asiatic jackal, desert fox, striped hyena, wolf, camel, rabbit and sand rat. The white Oryx, which
was hunted almost to extinction, lives on the open plains, while the mountain ibex is at home among
rocky, mountainous crags. Both of these two species are relatively rare. The animal diversity can be
summarized into in Jordan by, 434 species of birds, 82 species of mammals and 98 species of reptiles
were identified.
2.6 Fishery resources
Jordan is almost entirely land-locked and only has a small (27 km) marine coast to the Red Sea,
centered on the port of Aqaba. All marine landings in Jordan are made into this port. With a very small
marine fishing industry and a declining freshwater fishing industry, although aquaculture production
has been increasing in recent years and now accounts for around 50 percent of national fish
production4.
3
http://www.unccd.int/ActionProgrammes/Jordan%20-%20eng%202015-2020.pdf
4
https://www.wto.org/french/tratop_f/tpr_f/s206-04_f.doc
Octobre 2016
4
MENA-DELP Project
Monograph of Jordan
2.7 Mining resources
According to information available in 1987, Libya's commercially usable mineral resources--apart from
its hydrocarbons- -were limited to a large iron-ore deposit in the Wadi ash Shati near Sabha in Fezzan
(see fig. 8), and scattered, deposits of gypsum, limestone, cement rock, salt, and building stone. There
also were small, widely scattered and currently noncommercial deposits of phosphate rock,
manganese, barite-celestite, sodium carbonate, sulfur, and alum. Although much of the country had
been photographed by the petroleum companies and large portions of it had been mapped by the
Italians, by British and American military personnel, and by the United States Geological Survey (from
1954 to 1962) in search of water and minerals, the country is so large that in early 1987 much of it still
had not been mapped at scales suitable for definitive mineral inventory.
Other scattered iron ore deposits in northwestern Tripolitania and northern Fezzan were apparently
insufficient to be commercially exploitable under current conditions. Manganese was known to occur
in northwestern Tripolitania and, in combination with the iron-ore deposits, at several locations in the
Wadi ash Shati. Known deposits, however, were not considered commercially exploitable.5
2.8 Energy resources
According to a U.S. Department of Energy report, Libya’s estimated total energy consumption for 2002
was 0.668 quadrillion Btu, or 0.16 percent of the world’s energy consumption. This total energy
statistic includes petroleum, dry natural gas, coal, net hydro, nuclear, geothermal, solar, wind, wood,
and waste electric power. The 2002 estimated per capita energy consumption rate was 122.9 million
Btu. Libya is the fourth largest producer of electricity in Africa and the second largest consumer of
power. It currently has an electric power production capacity of about 4.6 to 4.7 gigawatts (GW). In
2000 it generated 19.5 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) from thermal power stations that used locally
produced oil and gas. Libya has an average consumption of about 3,500 kWh per capita. Libya’s
demand for power is increasing annually by about 6 to 8 percent. The demand for 2010 is forecast at
5.8 GW, and for 2020 the demand is forecast at 8 GW.
3 Main environmental issues and challenges
3.1 Land degradation
In general, the dominant types of Land Degradation in the Jordan are water and wind erosion, decline
in soil fertility, and habitat degradation. The main causative factors are overgrazing, unsustainable
agricultural and water management practices and the over-exploitation of vegetative cover. In turn,
these are driven by rapid population growth, 2.8% per year (DoS, 2007), urbanization and the
prevailing poverty of the people that is forcing dryland farmers and herders increasingly to adopt nonsustainable land use practices to produce more food and to meet their needs.
Land degradation processes in Jordan affects not only selected ecosystem components or their
functional cycles; they are also destructive processes that negatively impact on the entire
environmental landscape. While these land degradation processes have to a large extent a human
induced local origin, if not addressed appropriately, the negative effects will impact on regional and
global environmental goods and services.
5
http://www.photius.com/countries/libya/economy/libya_economy_hydrocarbons_and_min~206.html
Octobre 2016
5
MENA-DELP Project
Monograph of Jordan
The purpose of this document is to review the current status of knowledge about land degradation in
Jordan in regard to policy and legislation and to document the eff orts to combat land degradation
that will be used as a guideline reference for organizing the next stages of the Oasis project
implementation in Jordan6.
3.2 Climate changes
The natural ecosystems in Jordan are subject to many pressures (e.g. land-use change, resource
demands, population changes); their extent and pattern of distribution is changing, and landscapes
are becoming more fragmented. Climate change constitutes an additional pressure that could change
or endanger ecosystems and the many goods and services they provide. Soil properties and processes
including organic matter decomposition, leaching, and soil water regimes will be influenced by
temperature increase. Soil erosion and degradation are likely to aggravate the detrimental effects of
a rise in air temperature on crop yields. Climate change may increase erosion in some regions, through
heavy rainfall and through increased wind speed.
3.3 Desertification
Most of Jordan’s arid and semiarid areas have suffered desertification. Although the rate of
desertification was not identified, several surveys and studies at the country level indicated that
Jordan’s land is at the threat of high rate of desertification. The process has been accelerated by
unsupervised management and land use practices of overgrazing, cultivation, and plowing of marginal
soils and wood removal in the high rainfall zones. The regions of irrigated highlands and the Jordan
Valley were also affected by aspects of salinization and alkalization of soil. In addition to humaninduced factors, climatic factors of unpredictable rainfall and periodic droughts are contributing to the
problem.7
4 Socio-economic activities
4.1 Agriculture:
The importance of the agricultural sector stems from the fact that it is the major source of fresh
vegetables and fruits for the domestic market and regional export markets. Agriculture plays a crucial
role in food security of the country and as a source of foreign currency. Despite the fact that more
than 90% of the country’s area is classified as arid and receives less than 200 mm annual rainfall, the
agricultural sector is still considered as an important sector in terms of socioeconomic aspects and
factors affecting both irrigated and rainfed agriculture.
Agricultural exports represented 17% of the total national exports in 2012 of which 13% were from
exports of livestock8. Agricultural production is closely tied to climate, making agriculture one of the
most climate-sensi tive of all economic sectors. The risks of climate change for the agricultural sector
are a particularly immediate and important problem because the majority of the rural population
depends either directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihoods.
6
Land degradation in Jordan - ICARDA Corporate Systems
7
http://www.academia.edu/25556922/Desertification_in_Jordan_A_Security_Issue
8
DOS, 2012, External Trade Statistics, 2012.
Octobre 2016
6
MENA-DELP Project
Monograph of Jordan
Climate change will affect the agricultural production and food quality because of the increasing
temperature and decreasing crop growth period. Also, it will affect the food quantity and the
accessibility to food leading to food-insecure communities. Food security is increasingly important for
the livelihood of the rural community where food availability and food quality are major concerns
because of climate change impacts.
4.2 Fishing
Jordan is almost entirely land-locked and only has a small (27 km) marine coast to the Red Sea,
centered on the port of Aqaba. All marine landings in Jordan are made into this port. With a very small
marine fishing industry and a declining freshwater fishing industry, although aquaculture production
has been increasing in recent years and now accounts for around 50 percent of national fish
production.
4.3 Mining:
The mining sector is one of the pillars of the Jordanian economy. The major mining exports of Jordan
include potash and phosphates. It is the largest producer of raw phosphates in the world. Jordan also
exports gypsum, unrefined salt, manganese ore and copper ore. Mineral production includes ceramic
raw material, such as feldspar, glass sand and clays. Jordan's potash deposits are located on the
northern shores of the Dead Sea9. Six uranium deposits have been identified and they represent 3%
of the world but remain untapped to date.
4.4 Tourism:
Jordan’s tourism industry benefits greatly from a number of competitive advantages including its
proximity to large regional feeder markets, diverse landscapes and climates, and the presence of
major historical and religious sites10. Although regional instability has dampened visitor numbers in
recent years, the industry remains an important pillar of the economy, and continues to expand
despite the challenges. The total contribution of Travel & Tourism to GDP was 23.0% of GDP in 2014,
and is forecast to rise by 4.7% in 2015. In 201411, the total contribution of Travel & Tourism to
employment, including jobs indirectly supported by the industry, was 20.0% of total employment
(310,000 jobs). This has increased from 4.0% in 2015 to 322,000 jobs.
4.5 Industry
The industrial sector is one of the most promising sectors in Jordan due to the number of industrial
cities and areas of development concerned with the support of medium and small industries many of
which benefited from the free trade agreements Jordan have. The industrial sector accounted for 22%
of GDP in 201412. Industrial Estates offer integrated infrastructure needed to attract investment and
services and to maximize the opportunities to benefit from regional and international agreements
signed by Jordan.
Free Zones also play an important role in attracting local and foreign capitals in the form of
investments in the different economic activities in addition to enhancing the leading role of the private
sector in setting up private and joint free zones which use local raw materials in production inputs.
9
http://www.arabpotash.com.
https://www.oxfordbusinessgroup.com/jordan-2015/tourism
10
11
https://www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/economic%20impact%20research/countries%202015/jordan2015.pdf
12
http://www.jic.gov.jo/Contents/Industry_Sector.aspx
Octobre 2016
7