Reviving Traditional Land Stewardship in Jordan

In the Ma’en region of western Jordan, communities have been facing threats to their land in the form of potential expansion of industrial activity for mining and energy production, as well as from the severe effects of climate change, including drought. Here, traditional grazing systems have been declining over the years, making these lands more vulnerable to such environmental and industrial changes.

The National Land Coalition (NLC) of Jordan worked to engage local communities in order to revive the 'Hima approach' in the area. The Hima approach is a traditional rangeland management system with a community-based approach for the integration of human well-being and sustainable use of natural resources, rooted in the tradition of the Arab region for more than 1,500 years.

The NLC’s work has been carried out in two directions:

• Focusing on [1] engaging local communities for awareness and capacity building, as well as for [2] establishing a collaborative relationship with the relevant local authorities;
• Targeting national-level policy spaces by [1] submitting an official (and successful) request to the Ministry of Agriculture for the establishment of the 'Hima' in the area, [2] advocating and obtaining the incorporation of specific criteria for the establishment of the 'Hima' approach as part of the Instructions for Improving, Developing and Utilising Rangelands and Conservation (Instructions no. 45/Z of 2016, issued under the Agriculture Law no. 13 of 2015).

It is estimated that, in the immediacy of this initiative in the target area, the security of tenure rights directly increased for approximately 300 people and over approximately 200 hectares. On a wider level, however, the NLC aims for this to be the beginning of continued improvements: the changes at the ministerial level are a testament to this, and some of the next moves have already been identified – in fact, the NLC is opening channels with the Agricultural Committee in the House of Representatives to take legal steps in order to mitigate threats such as those observed in the Ma’en area, so that the rights of local pastoral communities are not put at risk in the future.

This initiative is part of ILC’s Global Land Catalyst: a seed funding mechanism that enables National Land Coalitions worldwide to carry out targeted actions in response to threats or time-bound opportunities at the nexus between land rights and environmental challenges.