The Yarmouk Forest Reserve has been nominated by the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) to be included on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Green List. 

The IUCN is a membership union composed of government and civil society organisations that “harnesses the experience, resources and reach of its more than 1,400 member organisations and the input of more than 15,000 experts”, according to IUCN Regional Director Hany Al Shaer. 

“This diversity and vast expertise makes IUCN the global authority on the status of the natural world and the measures needed to safeguard it,” Shaer said.

Director of the Yarmouk Forest Reserve Mohammad Malkawi said in a press statement on Sunday that this nomination can help the reserve “achieve positive economic, development and social impact on local communities through effective participatory work with the reserve”.

According to the RSCN, the nomination was based on a number of criteria that characterise the reserve and qualify it to enter the IUCN, adding that the reserve has been “putting in great efforts to be able to enter the union”.

The potential membership “opens up horizons of participation by local civil society institutions and government entities, granting it a legitimate stance when applying for funding for its activities or when asking for voluntary help for its programmes now and in the future”, Malkawi said.

He stressed the importance of the step to join the IUCN on the national level by highlighting the “many positive benefits” and profits of marketing local tourism locally, regionally and globally.

“This is not to mention an IUCN membership’s direct impact on improving the economies of the local population by creating job opportunities and allocating a space in the reserve to market household products and handicrafts,” he added.

Both the RSCN and the reserve called on those interested in environmental and natural affairs to help the reserve by lobbying with international environmental organisations and advocating on social media for the reserve’s acceptance into the IUCN.

Source: Jordan Times