By Saeb Rawashdeh – Dec 05,2024
AMMAN — “Facing Change” conference held in Amman On Tuesday and Wednesday, attracted over 200 delegates, experts and media representatives who listened to local and international presenters about current problems that different cultural sites face due to climate change, regional conflicts and urban development.
Talking about the changed landscape in Jordan, Asma Bsour connected cultural heritage and traditional way of life with ecology of Jordan and Levant in her presentation ” Inclusive Heritage: Preserving Jordan’s Natural Heritage in a Changing Climate”.
Landscape has been compromised through millenniums by pollution, erosion and destruction of the eco-systems, and what we see today does not resemble the ecological system that once existed, Bsour continued.
She added that desert kites in the eastern Jordan, south-eastern Syria and northern Saudi Arabia represented heritage of the region. Petroglyphs found in the desert tell the story about these structures that were used to hunt down game animals as well as to keep livestock.
“They were basically used for hunting and people would chase animals down these tunnel- shaped stone walls until they would reach enclosure at the end,” Bsour said, noting that predators ensured the balance of the eco-system.
This is one of the stories which show how the landscape that we have today can see a very different life, she underlined, adding that in 2018 scientists started researching Amman and its surrounding. Seventy-eighty years ago, downtown Amman was much less populated.
The focus of her study was travellers’ accounts about old Amman and Transjordan as well as mosaics in St. George Church in Madaba that testify about the vegetation and fauna of Transjordan and the West Bank in the Roman-Byzantine time and the Early Islamic Period.
The Madaba mosaics depict plants, lions and leopards that have been extinct long time ago.
“We still have wild boars in some forests in the north of Jordan,” Bsour elaborated, adding that geologists and paleobotanists analysed archaeological sites in Jordan and discovered that Amman was surrounded with oak forests and pistachio threes.
This discovery intrigued Bsour and her team to learn more about the transformation of Amman landscape in the last few thousand years.
Re-forestation that the team implemented enabled different animal spices to live there, and their number increased, particularly birds, foxes and insects.
“These initiatives attracted volunteers, particularly schoolchildren,” Bsour stressed, noting that older people also joined that community of nature protectors.
The study did not highlight native ecology only but also agriculture and different systems of production eco-friendly food produce. The aim of these actions was to create food safety and resilience for the local community.
“We were analysing traditional ways of water harvesting in arid areas not only in Jordan, but Lebanon and Syria,” Bsour elaborated, noting that combination of native ecology and advanced technology without polluting the agricultural land can provide sustainable development for local communities in these areas.
http://www.jordantimes.com/news/local/facing-change-conference-highlights-climate-impact-cultural-heritage