Desertification is a serious problem in Jordan resulting from a combination of natural factors and poor land management practices. The natural landscape is seriously degraded in areas of uncontrolled urban expansion, mining sites, overused grazing lands, improperly irrigated farmlands and over-harvetsed forest lands. Jordan has very limited water resources with one of the world's lowest rates of available water per capita, constraining the country's growth and development.

National Action Program to Combat Desertification

Jordan ratified the UN Convention to Combat Desertification in 1996 and adopted its National Action Program to Combat Desertification in 2006.

The NAP is structured into six programmes of intervention:

1. Desertification Information System (DIS);
2. Drought prediction and desertification control;
3. Capacity building and institutional development;
4. Restoration of degraded ecosystemes of rangelands and forests;
5. Watershed management;
6. Human, social and economic development initiatives.

Programme Support

The Programme is supporting national efforts towards UNCCD implementation and drylands development, specifically the initiatives below

	Support to the NAP Process
	Sustainable Land Management and Development in Petra - Jordan
	Jordan-Lebanon Experience Exchange Mission
	Groundwater Governance in the Highlands