SPNL Participates in the Regional Hima Forum: Possibilities are Endless

Under the Patronage of HRH Prince Hassan Bin Talal, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature – Regional Office for West Asia (IUCN) organized the Hima forum which took place in Amman Jordan on 6-7 May 2014.

The Forum highlighted IUCN’s initiatives on Hima revival to serve dry land restoration and grazing management in Jordan . It shed the light on the long term economic viability of investment in Hima for rangeland management. The forum reflected on the experiences of implementing Hima for livelihood and conservation aspects. It showed several case studies of Hima revival from Jordan, Oman, Lebanon and Iraq.

During the forum SPNL’s Hima program’s director Dalia Al-jawhary presented SPNL’s Regional and local initiatives in Hima revival since 2004 for the conservation of nature and livelihoods, including several Regional workshops ( in Lebanon and Istanbul) in addition to the Hima motion which was submitted by SPNL in the IUCN 2012 world congress, in order to recognize Hima role as a typical community based management system that supports the sustainable management of natural resource and livelihood empowerment and the need for its promotion in the region.

SPNL highlighted on the importance of setting a unified Hima definition and policy framework with an action plan that assures Hima dissemination through IUCN regional partners for adoption and support. At the end of the forum, a Hima declaration was discussed and agreed between participants in order to be presented at the IUCN World Parks Congress in November 2014, highlighting Hima role in range land management, livelihood empowerment and biodiversity conservation.

Hima forum came out with important recommendations that figured out The Amman Declaration on Innovating Hima.

The Amman Declaration on Innovating Hima ensures the importance of Hima concept and plans to move from scattered good practices towards more systematic scale up of Hima, which requires the following actions:

1. Strengthen land stewardship and communal tenure;

2. Strengthen scientific and economic evidence and local knowledge to provide systematic monitoring for quality assurance;

3. Create an enabling environment of policy and institutional support and address the cross-sectoral nature of Hima;

4. Develop incentives and rewards for the multiple and diverse benefits of Hima;

5. Build capacity and awareness in public institutions and communities, with particular focus on the skills of participation, empowerment and monitoring;

6. Build partnerships and networks for experience sharing, knowledge and capacity building, and to maximize the transboundary and international benefits of Hima;

7. Initiate appropriate steps for resource mobilization.