Transforming Jordanian eco-tourism pioneer

In exploring “the Power of Travel to Transform,” Condé Nast extols the efforts of the RSCN to protect the Jordanian environment and improve livelihoods while encouraging and harnessing the power of tourism. The RSCN’s socio-economic projects – which employ local Jordanians as reserve managers, hiking guides, and producers of locally-sourced foodstuffs, candles, olive oil soaps, and handicrafts – not only offer “authenticity to travellers tired of hotel chains but also link rural communities to the modern economy while allowing them to remain in landscapes they know intimately.” This observation highlights the core of PA’s mandate on this assignment, which entails the preservation of the environment through the engagement and involvement of local communities and the public, while ensuring sustainable business operations.

Eco-tourism has proved to be a primary nexus at which conservation and sustainable business development intersect for the RSCN. The RSCN currently manages six nature reserves that not only protect some of the most unique and singularly biodiverse ecosystems in Jordan but also provide an impressive variety of tourism business experiences. Through PA’s work, the Society intends to inaugurate an additional nine reserves in the near future, more than doubling the area under its guardianship and further expanding its tourism enterprise into new products as well as boutique and niche markets.

PA will be working with the RSCN over the coming months on a transformation strategy that will facilitate this exponential growth while ensuring that that the Society’s dual commitment to nature and people is strengthened through staff capacity building, business-oriented growth strategies, and private sector partnership. Through the use of PA’s holistic One Page Strategy Toolkit and with PA’s ROI-driven benefits modelling techniques, the RSCN expects to realize a transformation that will empower its growth and serve as a model for innovative conservation practice in the region.

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