Funded by:               United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS)
Contracting party: Global Environment Facility/Small Grants Programme (GEF/SGP)
Starting Date:         August 2012
Ending Date:           November 2013

This project aims to build a guide to sustainable Palestinian forest resources in northern and southern West Bank through the assessment of three Palestinian protected areas being the most diverse in terms of vital content. The project also aims to rehabilitate degraded areas in these targeted forests through replanting of degraded areas in accordance to the available budget. Al Qarin protected area in Hebron Governorate and Umm at Tut protected area in Jenin Governorate will be targeted. The status of natural forest resources and their landscape will be assessed in order to better plan its management and protection. The project includes firstly the introduction of the project to the local communities surrounding the two targeted forests, to involve them in the planning process for the protection of natural capital surrounding them. The project will then study the biotic components, in particular the vegetation cover dominant in the two forests through desk research and field surveys, and analyzing spatially the landscape variability and change in vegetation density over fifteen years through the use of aerial photos, GIS, and land use maps in order to identify the most degraded areas within targeted forests. This will be followed by a two workshops of rapid appraisal assessment conducted for the relevant decision-makers, stakeholders and local communities to discuss the results of the research and the development of project indicators to measure the economic and cultural importance of the two forests. The team will also conduct an economic feasibility study to determine the monetary value of benefits and services provided by forests to the surrounding communities, in addition to a qualitative assessment (cultural and heritage) of the use of natural resources in the two forests. In addition, four awareness campaigns will be organized for local communities and stakeholders about sustainable utilization of Palestinian forests. A final step will be the rehabilitation of protected areas corridors. For more information please see the link below..
 
Palestinian Forests Sustainability and Rehabilitation: click to follow