ICARDA annual report 2004

ICARDA Annual Report 2004
50
staff. A thematic meeting and
training course were also held on
impact assessment.
To build capacity, the regional
components of the project organized
training courses for 189 participants.
Fifty-six training courses
were also conducted by the project’s
national components for 1263
people, including 531 women. The
courses considered habitat and
rangeland management, alternative
sources of income, value-adding
technologies, and the use of feed
blocks. As a result, para-veterinary
services were initiated in Jordan
and shinglish cheese production
began in Jordan and Palestine for
the first time. The courses also led
to the start-up of small businesses
based on nursery development,
dairy and mushroom production,
and the cultivation of medicinal
and herbal plants. Through the
project, seven students gained
higher degrees.
Mushroom production has been initiated
by local communities in Ajloun,
Jordan for the diversification of their
income.
Large-scale demonstrations
were used to transfer new technologies
such as cereal-legume
rotations, integrated pest management,
seed cleaning and treatment,
water harvesting, and rangeland
improvement and management.
The project encouraged local NGOs
to participate by providing them
with seed-cleaning and feed-block
units.
Public awareness was enhanced
through posters, leaflets, newsletters,
websites, television documentaries,
and plays performed at
schools and rural theatres. National
and international workshops and
conferences were also used to promote
the project.
The project developed curricula
and scientific guides for all the
countries involved to promote biodiversity
conservation in schools.
The Syrian and Palestinian components
also worked with teachers to
draft teaching guides. Gardens
were created in schools and field
visits organized for students and
teachers. Environmental clubs were
also set up in Palestine. In Jordan,
students documented their parents’
knowledge of agrobiodiversity and
teachers in Lebanon, Palestine, and
Syria were trained in conservation.
In addition, more than 4000 students
and 273 teachers attended
presentations about the project during
the International Convention on
Education in Lebanon. The project
also organized site visits for senior
ministers and donors in Jordan,
Lebanon, and Syria.
Technologies for value-added
products and alternative incomegenerating
activities were also pro-
The project distributed
large
numbers of
medicinal plants
to women.
moted. This focused on training
women, providing technical support
for new businesses, and creating
links with markets. Two newlycreated
NGOs in Lebanon were
helped with processing and packaging
local products. In Syria, an
agrobiodiversity shop was set up
by a private business with links to
the Al-Haffeh Women’s Union.
Two thousand medicinal plant
seedlings were distributed in
Lebanon and Jordan, while 230,000
medicinal plants and 115 kg of seed
were also distributed in Palestine.
The project also promoted ecotourism
at Ham in Lebanon by
organizing two visits for a tour
operator.
Three theme-specific meetings
were held on socioeconomics, fruit
tree conservation, and biodiversity
in education to strengthen regional
integration and networking. The
impacts of the project were
acknowledged by national partners
and donors at the sixth Regional
Steering Committee Meeting. Plans
were also made for the first international
conference to promote community-based
conservation and the
sustainable use of dryland agrobiodiversity,
to be held at ICARDA
headquarters in April 2005.