Online birdwatching programme in energy projects launches

AMMAN— The Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) on Thursday launched the national database of the birdwatching programme in energy projects, in partnership with the Ministry of Environment (MoE), the first of its kind worldwide.

At the launching event, Minister of Environment and Minister of Agriculture Saleh Kharabsheh said: “Jordan is among the leading countries in terms of the protection of the environment and nature.”

Reflecting the government’s awareness of the importance of Jordan for migratory birds, which is located on one of the most important bird migration flyways of the world, Kharabsheh noted that the Kingdom signed a number of international treaties to protect migratory birds, in addition to continuing Jordan’s commitment to the protection of such species.

Migratory species are strong indicators to ecosystem quality and the climate change, the minister further said.

In an effort to contribute to the protection of migratory birds in Africa, Europe and Asia as well as to emphasise the importance of their preservation from major threats, such as habitat degradation, higher mortality rates and lower breeding rates, unsustainable hunting, biodiversity-destructive economic and human activities and the accidental mortality of birds due to energy projects infrastructure, the minister said “the need for concentrated international and national efforts to protect migratory birds emerged”.

Meanwhile, RSCN Director General Yahya Khaled said that the RSCN and the MoE have developed special security procedures for the protection of migratory birds in energy projects, noting that “the national database has been developed by national experts and they included binding rules in dealing with energy projects, in order to be bird friendly”.

The database is available at www.moenv-eim.gov.jo. Whereas all energy companies are to adhere to downloading bird observation data, which would form “a national data bank”.

The launch ceremony saw the attendance of RSCN and MoE representatives, in addition to a number of experts in nature conservation and energy as well as various media outlets.