The four Jordanian winners competed for the National Nature Guide Training Scholarship Competition, organized by OHK Consultants and launched by Jordan’s Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature.
After a year of intensive training in South Africa, Jordan’s first certified conservationists and nature guides have returned home to help elevate the country’s eco-tourism industry. The four young Jordanians are the first group of Arab students to acquire nature guidance qualifications and accreditation from the Field Guides Association of Southern Africa. OHK designed the training fellowship program for the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) as a foundation for the development of national conservation training in the Kingdom.
OHK designed the 1-year training program to offer the RSCN with a thorough understanding of the best national qualifications framework for environmental planning and management in the world. The four Jordanians were placed within various South African conservation and ecotourism organizations and trained on a standardized, outcome-based syllabus, an assessment system based on high standards of competence, and certification-based training courses.
USAID-Jordan Mission Director Beth Paige celebrating the success with RSCN’s Chair, HE Khalid Irani.
As a supplement to this capacity building program, the RSCN is set to complete its $3.9 million Academy, which will host the four Jordanians as research and teaching staff and implement their training framework. It will provide the first regional center of excellence in environmental planning and conservation management in the Middle East.