Transforming the Middle East’s Eco-tourism Pioneer

The September 2009 issue of Condé Nast Traveller featured an in-depth look at Jordanian nature reserves and eco-tourism, spotlighting the work of the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN). The Society—one of the leading and most respected conservation NGOs in the Middle East—has retained OHK Consultants to develop a transformation strategy that will enable it to expand its vital conservation work in Jordan while strengthening Jordan’s place as a world-wide ecotourism market. In exploring “the Power of Travel to Transform,” Condé Nast extols the efforts of the RSCN to protect the 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 travelers 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 OHK’s mandate on this 2-year long assignment, which entailed the preservation of the environment through the engagement and involvement of local communities and the public, while ensuring sustainable business operations.

OHK’s work has been highly profiled among the decision makers in Jordan as well as in the media. Ajloun Forrest Reserve is a staple in visits to Jordan by Britain’s Prince Charles. Seen here accompanying HMQ Rania of Jordan on a visit to the reserve. Photo courtesy of the office of the Queen.

Eco-tourism has proved to be a primary nexus at which conservation and sustainable business development intersect for the RSCN. At the time of OHK’s engagement, the RSCN managed 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 OHK’s work, the Society expanded its mandate to manage more than twenty protected areas and reserves, more than doubling the area under its guardianship and further expanding its tourism enterprise into new products as well as boutique and niche markets. OHK’s transformation strategy facilitated 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.

To learn more about OHK’s sustainable tourism capability, please contact us. 

To learn more about RSCN’s history, reserves and transformative work in Jordan, please visit their website.

Development Strategy and Visitation Growth Plan for the Baptismal Site of Jesus Christ

“John answered them, ‘I baptize with water; but among you stands one whom you do not know, even he who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.’ This took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.”
—John 1:26–28

John the Baptist (Yaḥyā in Arabic) is a revered prophet in Christianity and Islam. It is widely accepted that he lived on the east side of the Jordan River and for about 20 years resided in a cave on the 2000-years old Al-Maghtas’s Elijah’s Hill. This area in Jordan has been globally authenticated by all major Christian Church leaders as one of the three holiest sites of Christianity, next to Bethlehem and Jerusalem, and as the place where Jesus was baptized. Photo was taken inside St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church, only a short walking distance from the Baptismal Site of Jesus Christ. Photo © OHK Consultants.

A team from OHK was hired to audit the infrastructure and services offered by the Government of Jordan on the Jordanian-side of the Jordan River where the site for the Baptism of Jesus and the ministry of John the Baptist are located, a 45-minute drive from the capital of Amman. The site is known in Jordan as the Al-Maghtas (baptism, or immersion in Arabic). The area is of global importance and as a result of our work has become, as of 2015, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

Our team completed a collective scan of the region’s spatial and archaeological history from the times of when John the Baptist was baptizing in "Bethany beyond the Jordan"—the historic area of Bethabara. This area has developed into one of the earliest places of worships and pilgrimage for both Christians and Jews. Over a six-month period of research, and site mapping and analysis we built the first detailed GIS-based inventory of the area’s assets, including all known and documented archaeology and past and current buildings. Despite its significance, the area had never been digitally documented to high levels of detail, specificity, and accuracy. 

Our work produced a preliminary master plan of the Jordanian-side of the Jordan River where the site for the Baptism of Jesus and the ministry of John the Baptist are located, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and National Park, a 45-minute drive from the capital of Amman. We based our work on extensive GIS-based mapping and developed circulation and parcelization plans tied to three phases of revival including allocations to build churches and rehabilitated trails of old pilgrimage routes. Photo shows the Jordan River and one of thirteen different historic Christian denominations’ churches on site. Photo © OHK Consultants.

The GIS-inventory tracks for the first time any part of the site spatially and temporally and makes it possible to analyze almost two thousand years of development, research, documentation, and discoveries since the assumed dates for the start of the ministry of John the Baptist around 28–29 AD. Given the scale of this task, the mapping was in and of itself a standalone project and despite not being part of our contractual obligations, our team offered it as a courtesy to the Government of Jordan.

Based on the mapping, we implemented a few work tracks to analyze the area’s potential based on its mandate to preserve the site "as it is". Given Jordan’s increased growth as a tourist destination, we formulated several zero-impact development scenarios focused almost exclusively on minimum site footprint, enhanced visitor experience, improved site management, and better infrastructure and mobility. These scenarios maintain visitation to lower-bound numbers, and can easily sustain OHK's site visitation forecast until 2030. One of three zero-impact scenarios is currently in operation on the site, as of 2018.

Visitors to one of the site’s many immersion pools listen to an explanation by a site guide. Our team recommended an autonomous Jordanian authority to manage the site and operate global marketing and promotion, an international qualification scheme for site guides, and best-practice quality standards for all facets of construction and operation. Photo © OHK Consultants.

Given the government’s desire to make the site one of the most pronounced, active and attractive pilgrimage sites globally, it was necessary to formulate additional growth and development scenarios that induce and serve a larger number of visitors. Three transitional phases were developed and coupled with a site tenant strategy and an international marketing campaign focused on all denominations and all faiths. A cornerstone of the first phase was to allocate land to thirteen different historic Christian denominations to build churches and facilities for doing baptisms, along with service infrastructure and immersion pools. This is the basis of a site-wide revival master plan which would later, as part of the second phase, accommodate rehabilitated trails to old pilgrimage routes of Mount Nebo or Maqam el-Nabi Musa (the burial place of Moses per Christian and some Islamic traditions), Madaba (home to the Byzantine-era mosaic map of the Holy Land), Umm al-Rassas (the biblical settlement of Mephaat) and Mukawir (where Herod imprisoned and executed John the Baptist).

The preliminary master plan included a footprint analysis map tied to circulation and parcelization as well as future development allocations, especially a third phase which would utilize more than 350 dunum of land adjacent to the site. Today this serves as the basis for the site management plan per UNESCO’s World Heritage Site requirements and supports the continued work of historians, archaeologists, and Church leaders and goers. The Baptism Site of Jesus continues to grow in popularity in light of three Popes having visited in the past two decades, Pope John Paul II in 2000, Pope Benedict in 2009, and finally four years ago, Pope Francis.

The identification and recognition of the Baptismal Site of Jesus Christ on the east bank of the River Jordan have given Jordan an unparalleled global asset which meant it was competing directly with Israel’s western bank for biblical and tourism visitors. We completed a benchmark study to evaluate the site versus its peer in Israel, including a visitation forecast study, a comparison between infrastructure and services, and a cross-mapping of key operational aspects, including marketing and promotion, and site guiding, The two share the same River immersion pool as shown in this photo taken from the Jordanian east bank looking at Israel’s western bank. Photo © OHK Consultants.

Included in our work was a benchmark study we conducted to compare the site to its peer on the Jordan River’s western side in Israel. Our comparison included a visitation forecast study, a comparison between infrastructure, and a cross-mapping of key operational aspects, including marketing and promotion, and site guiding. Despite the international recognition received by Jordan’s site, our forecast has shown that it will receive much lower numbers than the west bank’s. We developed an institutional blueprint to address competitive advantage and a weaker Jordan position to attract visitors. We urged five actions in tandem with the master plan, without which the site’s growth and competitiveness would be affected: an autonomous Jordanian authority to manage the site, an international board of trustees that supports the site’s position and finances, a continuous, well-financed and dedicated team and campaign for international marketing, a distinct. non-government, and open to all, international qualification scheme for site guides, and quality standards for all facets of construction and operation. Each of these actions is intended to address a weak competitive advantage of Jordan’s site compared to the west bank.

You can learn more about the Baptismal Site of Jesus Christ here. To learn more about our work in UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites and OHK's strategy practice and track record in planning areas of cultural, historical, and landscape significance, contact us. 

Baselining Productivity for New Economic Zones

OHK prepared the economic and spatial plan for developing North Jordan, a cornerstone in the country’s strategy for new economic zones in rural areas. In this blog post, we share analysis and viewpoints on baselining productivity in rural economies. All data come from OHK’s 2007-2030 socioeconomic model for the Jabal Ajloun region. 

OHK mapped the land cover and parcelization of almost 1000 square kilometers of land in Jabal Ajloun, one of the largest land baselining programs ever conducted in Jordan and the Middle East. We have found that there are only 216 privately-owned agricultural parcels larger than 50 dunums—a mere 0.8% of the total number of private agricultural parcels. This challenges the agricultural productivity of an area which is among the most fertile in the country. Photo © OHK Consultants.

Over the course of our many field visits to Jabal Ajloun, one could not help but marvel at the beauty of the region. Whether the dense, rolling forests in the north, or the breathtaking views along the southern ridge overlooking the Zarqa valley and the Balqa beyond; whether the trees heavy with apricots in Wadi Souf, or the charming village architecture amidst the hills above the Jordan Valley, Jabal Ajloun is replete with aesthetic character. 

And yet, despite the quiet, rural character of the area, our visits increasingly became tinged with urgency; for as we collected data on the baseline conditions of Jabal Ajloun we found that the socioeconomic, spatial, environmental, and institutional foundations of the landscape were growing ever more unsound. Although Ajloun has historically been spared some of the ravages of industrialization, worrisome trends have emerged, threatening to consign this jewel in the Jordanian crown to decay and foreclose on its nascent tourism potential before that potential can be realized. 

These issues, therefore, have substantially informed the contents of OHK’s strategic planning, and have set the stakes for the future of 1% of Jordan’s land area. 

Ajlounis suffer from many of the socioeconomic ills that are bedevil rural areas; however, as unpalatable this is on a national scale, it is all the more unfortunate in an area as rich in tourism and agricultural potential as Jabal Ajloun. It is a sad irony indeed that a land which was once regarded by the Ottomans as among the most productive in the Levant faces such economic and social marginalization. 

Despite being one of Jordan’s most promising tourist destinations, employment in tourism accounts on average for a mere 1.2% of the total employment market, reflecting a particularly underdeveloped tourism infrastructure. Tourism products need a much-needed boost to improve quality, size, and offerings. Photo shows status quo of some tourist facilities in 2008 which OHK has redesigned as part of a transformational tourist strategy in park areas. Photo © OHK Consultants. 

Perhaps the most serious socioeconomic issue is the inadequate and unsustainable economic base that often works to the detriment of the landscape. Jabal Ajloun is home to the least diverse employment base in the entire kingdom. Of those who are employed, by far the single most common economic activity is in the public sector (i.e., employment by the government, whether military or administrative). This reflects the dearth of employment opportunities in the region; so limited is private sector employment that the government must afford employment directly. 

In Ajloun Governorate, an average of 65% of the total population of employed persons worked for the government – the highest figure for any governorate, and close to double the nationwide average. Curiously, jobs in agriculture and forestry account for less than 5% of the employment base in Ajloun – an area which is among the most fertile in the country. While the Ajlouni values are marginally higher than the nationwide average, they are still lower than in other, surprisingly arid governorates like Mafraq (5.1%) and Karak (7.2%). 

Moreover, employment in tourism accounts on average for a mere 1.2% of the total employment market, reflecting a particularly underdeveloped tourism infrastructure. We can see the overwhelming preponderance of public sector employment. Moreover, only in Burma and Kufrangeh are the agricultural sectors more than negligible; however, these districts are the two least inhabited districts in Jabal Ajloun. Of course, these figures are relevant only for those who are employed: the unemployment rate in Jabal Ajloun ranged from 14% in Kufrangeh to 26% in Sakhra, with an overall rate for Ajloun Governorate at 18% – the second highest figure in Jordan. 

In terms of agriculture, production is based primarily on fruit and olive tree harvesting, together with wheat and barley growing (generally on plateaus or in wide valleys, and on a smaller, water-dependent scale). Fruiting trees and vines constitute nearly 200,000 dunums of Jabal Ajloun and are consequently of greater strategic interest to the Jabal Ajloun region. The most common of these trees are olive trees, some of which date from the Byzantine era. Ajlouni olive oil, with its high quality and unique taste, is and will continue to remain an essential element of the Ajlouni agricultural regime. Indeed, olive oil pressing represents the primary industrial activity in the Ajloun Governorate. 

Around a decade ago, the Ajloun Governorate contained 14 oil pressing factories which together constituted 26 production lines producing over two tons of olive oil annually. This has increased in 2018. Nevertheless, agricultural production remains small scale, and suffers from substantial technical and administrative problems, including a lack of resources, complex land ownership, poor infrastructure, and the absence of a central agriculture market in Ajloun.

Fruiting trees and vines constitute nearly a quarter of Jabal Ajloun (200,000 dunums) and are consequently of greater strategic interest. Some of the olive trees date from the Byzantine era. Photo © OHK Consultants.

The small scale of agriculture in Ajloun is in some ways a blessing; most agriculture remains rain-fed, and while economic gains are currently modest, the sector has avoided the more flagrant and deleterious environmental effects that often proceed from commercial agriculture. Even more importantly, Ajlouni agriculture lends itself quite effectively to the imperatives of agritourism (in terms of authenticity, character, and scenic value) as well as boutique and potentially brand-able products (such as Ajlouni olive oil or local fruit). 

Furthermore, a number of wild cultivars with potential boutique value are found in Jabal Ajloun, including rosemary, capers, and wild asparagus. However, exploiting this boutique potential and reaping the economic benefit from such production requires technical, administrative, and marketing capabilities that are nonexistent in Ajloun. Diversification in downstream production, marketing and distribution is direly needed to support agro-based industries. 

Most disturbing, however, is the subsuming of fertile agricultural lands by unplanned urban development. Though OHK has been unable to quantify changes in agricultural land cover historically, we have reason to believe that agriculture faces destruction by urbanization and irrelevance by parcelization into areas incapable of supporting economically feasible crop production. The latter is particularly pressing.

It has been estimated that an agricultural land parcel must be no less than 50 dunums in order to be considered commercially sustainable. However, our quantification of agricultural land parcels demonstrated that there are only 216 privately-owned agricultural parcels larger than 50 dunums in Jabal Ajloun – a mere 0.8% of the total number of private agricultural parcels. 

An almost two-decade-old socioeconomic program for local communities that was established by the Royal Society of Nature manufactured agro- and nature-inspired products in Ajloun.  OHK overhauled the program with a focus on transforming products, distribution, and rebranding, which included setting up new distribution and retail channels outside of the region. Photo was taken in 2018 and shows the program’s flagship store “the nature shop” located in Queen Alia International Airport which was set up as a result.  Photo © OHK Consultants.

In terms of income and expenditures, statistics suggest that the Ajlouni household must endure comparatively tight finances. The average income of Ajlouni households contains the highest proportion of money from pensions and government aid in the Kingdom, whereby around a third of household income comes from these sources. Moreover, Ajlounis have a far higher dependence on government pension money (just under 18% of total household income) than the nationwide average which hovers around 10%. 

At the same time, Ajlouni households are far less likely to derive household income from rent or entrepreneurial endeavors. As for expenditures, on the one hand, Ajloun household expenditures consistently rank among the lowest in the Kingdom, with the majority of households spending less than 5,000 JD per year, and over 4% of households spending less than 1,800 JD per year. On the other hand, those expenditures tend to be disproportionately higher for food items and fuel, while lower for education and medical care. 

Finally, from a social perspective, Jabal Ajloun suffers from a lack of healthcare institutions as well as cultural and civil-society entities. As of 2006, the entire governorate of Ajloun was served by only a single hospital and a mere 105 beds, which translates into eight beds per 10,000 people – one of the lowest ratios in the entire kingdom. These numbers have improved in the last decade but not enough. Thus, putting this in context, an area that contained 2.3% of the population of Jordan was served by less than 1% of the hospital beds in the Kingdom.  Primary health care clinics have struggled to address this failure of coverage; though there are primary and maternity clinics, there are comparatively few peripheral and dental care clinics. All of these issues, and many of those that will follow, will be exacerbated by demographic pressure. 

In 2007, we estimated that Jabal Ajloun had a population of 385,303 people in 2007 (nearly 7% of the population of Jordan). We assumed that if population growth continues at the historic rate of 2.37%, the population will reach over 660,000 people in 2030. Even using the more conservative World Bank projection for Jordan, the Ajlouni population was estimated to grow by 168 thousand people between 2007 and 2030 – 44% of the baseline population. In light of this growth, and in light of the fact that around 41% of the Ajlouni population is under 15 years of age, the socioeconomic problems in the area will worsen without some change in economic base in Ajloun.

This is the second post in a series on OHK’s work in North Jordan. See our previous post ‘The Case of Regional Economies’. For more information about our development and economic strategy practice, contact us.

The Case of Regional Economies

A holistic and ultimately successful development plan of regional economies demands close attention to the strategic resources, assets, and points of identity that cohere to form a region. Much has been said about developing rural economies, and in our attempts to understand the essential dynamics that give them their specificity and uniqueness, we have availed ourselves not just upon economic factors but also upon the ecological, geological, and cultural foundation which has historically proven so determinative. After having studied and planned more than 20 regions in the world, we have found that rural economies are more similar than different.   

This post reflects on our experience in Jabal Ajloun (Arabic: عجلون‎), a hilly region in Jordan that boosts hundreds of villages and contains the historic towns of Ajloun and Jerash.

The Ajloun landscape is one of a kind in the Middle East. Photo shows view from the Ajloun Castle, a 12th-century Ayyubids-built castle nestled on one of the highest hilltops in Jabal Ajlun. Known as "the castle of the faubourg", its name resonates with the region’s rural economy and the various small settlements that interwind with agricultural lands, and historic and natural landmarks until this day. Photo © OHK Consultants.

Few places in Jordan could have supported such a rich ecology and heritage in Ajloun, and the layers of this history are still visible throughout the region. Though perhaps a mere coincidence of geology and climate, the mild temperatures, comparatively high rainfall, and fertile soils of Jabal Ajloun have nonetheless supported a rich, rural landscape that even today remains prominent in the imagination of Jordanians. 

Any plans in this area of Jordan are usually met with intense scrutiny and concern for the impacts of such development on the sensitive and unique environment of Northern Jordan. Our study of land uses illustrated the need for rational planning in rural areas and stressed the importance of thoughtful controls and clear mechanisms to organize development in a way that preserves natural (and particularly forested) landscape in Jordan. 

In order to define Jabal Ajloun spatially, it has been necessary to reject the somewhat arbitrary administrative boundaries imposed upon Ajloun, represented by the three governorates (Ajloun, Irbid, and Jerash) and three capitals that encompass the region, and to expand our spatial understanding beyond the rigidly geopolitical. The boundaries we have established for the Ajloun region follow the contours of the land literally and figuratively: the areas encompassed by the boundary share both a geological character which has contributed to the unique ecological, arboreal, and agricultural nature of the region, as well as an exceptional cultural heritage found nowhere else in the country. 

Urban sprawl in rural economies is affecting their prime resources. Ruins of Greco-Roman settlements, like the City of Gerasa, known today as Jerash (Arabic: جرش), are flanked by roads, cars and urban density that houses tens of thousands of homes. Photo © OHK Consultants.

Thus, the lands embraced by our boundary share a common climate, fertility, altitude, and cultural identity, including a unified vernacular architecture and pattern of land tenure. Roughly, our boundary encompasses the elevated limestone dome—known historically as Mount Ajloun or Jabal Ajloun—that gives the region of Ajloun its commanding height, bounded by the Jordan Valley to the west, the Zarqa River to the south, the Irbid plateau to the north, and the deserts beyond Jerash to the east. In total, Jabal Ajloun measures 921,893 dunums, or nearly 922 km2—an area which constitutes nearly 1% of the total area of Jordan. 

There are six ways for the visitor to approach Jabal Ajloun, and each entrance is a threshold, offering a glimpse of the landscape within. From the southeast, the approach to Jabal Ajloun crosses the Zarqa, a river of biblical renown, winding uphill past farms and eucalyptus trees, eventually giving way to the yellow Rendzina soils of the southern Hauran. From the east, the visitor stops in the shadow of Hadrian’s Gate, ancient entrance to Roman Jerash, and ascends westward into the olive groves and limestone cliffs around Sakib. The northeast approach passes rumbling quarries, only to emerge amidst antiquated, sleepy villages of stone. In the north, the road from the bustling Kura District dips into a wadi and rises amidst the oak forests of Birqish. In the northwest, the visitor encounters the Roman city of Pella, and follows the ancient Roman road upwards into the highlands, along valleys scored by the grazing of goats. And to the west, the road rises from the sweltering Ghor, following the contours of a lush wadi inhabited for millennia. 

No approach to Jabal Ajloun is the same, and yet the experience of arriving at a place unlike any other in Jordan pervades them all. In choosing the boundary of planning, it is imperative to bring together into one overarching panorama all of the factors which characterize Ajloun, and which can be drawn upon to ensure that it not only survives, but flourishes. The affinity in the hearts of Jordanians informs the vision for Ajloun but a holistic view to understanding its boundaries ensure the right framing. The necessity of striking such a balance between is as important to matching investment to certain areas on the one hand and conserving existing cultural and environmental resources on the other. 

Pella (known in Arabic as Tabaqat Fahl, طبقةفحل) is located within Irbid Governorate and about 27 kilometers south of the Sea of Galilee. As one of the Decapolis cities that were founded during the Hellenistic period, it is a huddled into the Jordan Valley, 130 kilometers north of Amman, which frames it as a natural northern boundary of the Jabal Ajloun planning area. Photo © OHK Consultants.

The impetus for carrying out a vision was to identify hundreds of areas of touristic and natural value, thereby not only preserving the natural and cultural resources of the landscape but also channeling public and investment flows to improve livelihoods and bolster the economy. The natural and cultural resources which made Ajloun such a promising backdrop to Amman and a visitation hub resonated with the objectives of a development plan for the Ajloun region. 

Working with the Royal Hashemite Court the vision proposed four interlocked elements. First, establishing a knowledge baseline, in which information on the spatial, economic, and environmental state of Jabal Ajloun was determined to better plan intervention. Secondly, setting a high-level, multi-sector economy development plan for the various areas based upon a rigorous asset inventory and demand analysis. Thirdly, developing a master plan that proposes not only a comprehensive land use regulatory framework for the Ajlouni landscape, but also a series of investment packages and a healthy pipeline of projects. Last, this was framed within an institutional setup designed to facilitate the implementation of the transformation and capacity building to ensure its continued alignment with the vision. 

Endeavoring a strategy for the region of Ajloun that attracts meaningful development while complementing and conserving the landscape provides an example for how to plan and execute a sustainable future of rural regions. In upcoming posts, we will share a few of the key themes and challenges common in rural economies and explain best practices from our analytical work and the tools we use. 

This is part of several posts that provide perspectives and lessons learnt from our economic strategy work in various economies in countries in transition and emerging. For more information about OHK's work, contact us.