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Jordan Case Study An economic valuation of a large - scale rangeland restoration project through the Hima system in Jordan

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Title Jordan Case Study An economic valuation of a large - scale rangeland restoration project through the Hima system in Jordan
 
Creator Westerberg, Vanja
 
Contributor Myint, Moe
 
Description Jordanian rangelands are a source of valued
livestock produce, carbon storage, biodiversity, and
medicinal plants. They also serve as watersheds
that receive rainfall, yield surface water, and
replenish groundwater throughout the area
east and south of the western Jordan highlands.
Appropriate land management, which is currently
lacking, can protect and maximize these services
for society. With the acceleration of desertification,
land degradation and drought during the twentyfirst
century in the arid and semi-arid regions of
Jordan, these services are becoming jeopardized.
It is therefore increasingly urgent to define and
pursue viable strategies to reverse this trend. One
approach which is gaining increasing attention in
Jordan is the ‘Al-Hima’ land management system.
This is a historical and traditional system of land
management in the Arab region that encourages
the sustainable, shared use of common resources
amongst relevant communities.
To inform the debate surrounding this approach,
this paper presents an ex-ante cost-benefit analysis
of large-scale rangeland restoration through
the Hima system within the Zarqa River Basin,
drawing on experience from a pilot initiative by
IUCN and the Jordanian Ministry of Agriculture
(MoA) since 2010. The ecosystem services that
arise from rangeland restoration are valued using
a combination of stated preference, avoided costs,
replacement cost and market prices approaches.
The economic analysis has built on high-resolution
remote sensing, GIS, and biophysical soil and water
assessment tools, and was elaborated to rigorously
calibrate the impact of land use changes on forage
availability, ground water infiltration, carbon
sequestration, and sediment stabilisation. Benefits of large-scale rangeland restoration
from the Hima system were found to outweigh
the management and implementation costs at a
discount rate of 8 per cent. Given this encouraging
result, different policy instruments that may be
used to incentivize the restoration of rangelands
in Jordan are discussed. In particular, ensuring
pastoral communities have long-term stakes in
rangeland resources, the government should
first and foremost assign appropriate land tenure rights to pastoral communities, (e.g., through
long term leases) allowing them to effectively
manage access to rangeland resources. To finance
a change in the governance structure around
rangelands, the use of a cross-compliance scheme
is suggested, where scarce resources currently
dedicated to unconditional fodder subsidies are
instead partially diverted to promoting sustainable
rangeland management. For example, pastoral
communities practicing water harvesting and
grazing protocols could become eligible to receive
feed subsidies. Such a scheme should be coupled
with the provision of regular extension services
to increase sustainable resource management
capacities within the community.
The case is also made for setting up voluntary
contractual payments for ecosystem service
agreements, where downstream beneficiaries
of rangeland restoration compensate upstream
communities for their efforts. Appropriate policy
instruments that engender sustainable rangeland
management and Hima practices are likely to
be found in a mix of regulatory and economic
incentives.
 
Date 2016-02-01T21:29:14Z
2016-02-01T21:29:14Z
 
Type Report
 
Identifier http://www.eld-initiative.org/
https://mel.cgiar.org/reporting/download/hash/TEW2GPP
Vanja Westerberg, Moe Myint. (22/12/2015). Jordan Case Study An economic valuation of a large - scale rangeland restoration project through the Hima system in Jordan. Bonn, Germany: Economics of Land Degradation Initiative (ELD).
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11766/3476
Open access
 
Language en
 
Rights CC-BY-NC-4.0
 
Format PDF
 
Publisher Economics of Land Degradation Initiative (ELD)