<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" >

	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
		<atom:link href="https://news.mongabay.com/feed/?location=jordan&#038;type=post" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" />
		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/jordan/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
		<lastBuildDate>Fri, 04 Sep 2026 11:15:26 +0000</lastBuildDate>
		<language>en-US</language>
		<sy:updatePeriod>hourly</sy:updatePeriod>
		<sy:updateFrequency>1</sy:updateFrequency>
		<generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.4</generator>

<image>
	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>Jordan environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/jordan/</link>
	<width>32</width>
	<height>32</height>
</image> 
				<item>
					<title>Even the Gulf of Aqaba’s ‘supercorals’ bleached during 2024 heat wave</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/even-the-gulf-of-aqabas-supercorals-bleached-during-2024-heat-wave/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/even-the-gulf-of-aqabas-supercorals-bleached-during-2024-heat-wave/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Apr 2025 16:14:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ilan Ben Zion]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/04/11124442/Nursery2_IBZ-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=297486</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Israel, Jordan, and Middle East]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Extreme Weather, Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Heatwave, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Research, and Temperatures]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[EILAT, Israel — Rugged red mountains tower over the aquamarine waters off Eilat in southern Israel. A group of divers plunges beneath the waves on a warm winter morning, bound for a crag encrusted with coral known as Japanese Gardens. The hypnotic reverie of the undersea world shatters with the shock of spotting a bone-white [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[EILAT, Israel — Rugged red mountains tower over the aquamarine waters off Eilat in southern Israel. A group of divers plunges beneath the waves on a warm winter morning, bound for a crag encrusted with coral known as Japanese Gardens. The hypnotic reverie of the undersea world shatters with the shock of spotting a bone-white colony. Scientists have long considered the corals in the Gulf of Aqaba to be uniquely resilient to extreme temperatures, and have taken to calling them “supercorals.” Bleaching had never before been documented here. For the first time on record, however, last summer’s record-smashing heat wave brought these corals to “the threshold we’ve been talking about all along,” Maoz Fine, a Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor studying coral resilience and one of the leading Israeli scientists monitoring the gulf ecosystem, told Mongabay. He and his colleagues first received reports of bleached corals in August 2024 and are now studying the episode’s severity and extent. “There’s no doubt that we need to wake up, because climate change is having an impact — here all the more so,” he said. Coral reef ecosystems are likened to submarine rainforests: diversity of life in stupefying abundance. As oceans warm due to human-caused climate change, corals — colonies of jellyfish-like animals called cnidarians — eject the photosynthetic zooxanthellae that live symbiotically within their cells, and turn a ghastly white. While not a death sentence, the weakened corals, which form a cornerstone of nutrient-poor tropical ecosystems, are left highly vulnerable. Many die.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/even-the-gulf-of-aqabas-supercorals-bleached-during-2024-heat-wave/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/04/even-the-gulf-of-aqabas-supercorals-bleached-during-2024-heat-wave/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-297486</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Falcon trafficking soars in Middle East, fueled by conflict and poverty</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/falcon-trafficking-soars-in-middle-east-fueled-by-conflict-and-poverty/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/falcon-trafficking-soars-in-middle-east-fueled-by-conflict-and-poverty/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Aug 2023 09:37:37 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Lyse Mauvais]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/03141312/rescued-falcon-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=271771</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Wild Bird Trade]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Iraq, Jordan, Middle East, and Syria]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Conservation, Crime, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Forests, Illegal Trade, Law, Law Enforcement, Pet Trade, Politics, Rainforests, Raptors, Regulations, Trade, Wildlife, Wildlife Trade, and Wildlife Trafficking]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[ZARQA GOVERNORATE, Jordan; ERBIL, Iraq; QAMISHLI, Syria — In the darkness of a small, windowless room, half a dozen falcons were perched on low wooden stools, their eyes covered with leather hoods. Crouching on the sand-covered floor, their caretaker gently unhooded some of the birds, which stretched their wings cautiously. For most of them, free [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[ZARQA GOVERNORATE, Jordan; ERBIL, Iraq; QAMISHLI, Syria — In the darkness of a small, windowless room, half a dozen falcons were perched on low wooden stools, their eyes covered with leather hoods. Crouching on the sand-covered floor, their caretaker gently unhooded some of the birds, which stretched their wings cautiously. For most of them, free flight was a distant memory. Most of the falcons had recently been rescued from traffickers by Jordanian authorities and placed in the care of the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN), the main conservation NGO in Jordan, which runs a raptor rehabilitation center in the desert. The RSCN closely controls access to the center, and Mongabay is withholding its exact location to minimize the risk of someone targeting the birds. “The center is very remote, and we’ve had cases where people show up there with guns in the middle of the night,” Nashat Hamidan, a conservationist with the RSCN who helped establish the rehabilitation center, told Mongabay from his office at the RSCN’s Amman headquarters in May. “Some owners will do anything in their power to get them back,” he added, referring to the falcons, some of which can sell for tens of thousands of dollars. When Mongabay visited the center in March 2022, it held around half a dozen raptors. Most had been seized at borders or airports, either from visiting falconers who were bringing them to Jordan to hunt but didn’t have the right documentation, or from traffickers trying to smuggle&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/falcon-trafficking-soars-in-middle-east-fueled-by-conflict-and-poverty/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/falcon-trafficking-soars-in-middle-east-fueled-by-conflict-and-poverty/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-271771</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>In Jordan, the Middle East’s first Miyawaki-style ‘baby’ forests take root</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/in-jordan-the-middle-easts-first-miyawaki-style-baby-forests-take-root/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/in-jordan-the-middle-easts-first-miyawaki-style-baby-forests-take-root/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jun 2022 17:07:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Lyse Mauvais]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/05/01081227/1-Marka-Forest-volunteers-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256536</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Jordan, and Middle East]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Afforestation, Biodiversity, Community Forests, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Landscape Restoration, Reforestation, Solutions, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[AMMAN, Jordan — It’s a quiet day in Omar al-Faisal Park, in the impoverished industrial outskirts of Jordan’s capital, Amman. Sandwiched between the runway of a military airport and residential streets, the park seems unimpressive at first glance, but it shelters a little-known gem. Behind a wire fence, trees neatly planted a few meters apart [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[AMMAN, Jordan — It’s a quiet day in Omar al-Faisal Park, in the impoverished industrial outskirts of Jordan’s capital, Amman. Sandwiched between the runway of a military airport and residential streets, the park seems unimpressive at first glance, but it shelters a little-known gem. Behind a wire fence, trees neatly planted a few meters apart give way to a dense flurry of branches and tangled shrubs. Compact soil has been replaced by a thick mix of straw, earth and decomposing weeds. In spring, dozens of wildflowers blossom along the edges of the garden, swaying to the gentle hum of beetles and bees. Pay no heed to its appearance; this messy-looking garden is actually a budding forest that will soon host towering native trees. Nicknamed “Marka baby forest” for its location in the Marka neighborhood and its tiny footprint, it’s one of the first forests of the Middle East to be designed according to the Miyawaki method, a technique for growing mature forests in a matter of decades. Since 2018, Jordanian architect Deema Assaf and Japanese environmentalist Motoharu Nochi have planted three such forests in Amman, the largest with a footprint of just 250 square meters (2,700 square feet). Their goal? Sketching a path toward the restoration of Jordan’s disappearing forest ecosystems while reconnecting urban communities to nature. The Miyawaki method Akira Miyawaki developed his namesake method in the 1970s in Japan, in the midst of  a post-war industrial boom that was taking a visible toll on the environment. As a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/in-jordan-the-middle-easts-first-miyawaki-style-baby-forests-take-root/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/06/in-jordan-the-middle-easts-first-miyawaki-style-baby-forests-take-root/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256536</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Jordan scrambles to save rare Red Sea corals that can withstand climate change</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/jordan-scrambles-to-save-rare-red-sea-corals-that-can-withstand-climate-change/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/jordan-scrambles-to-save-rare-red-sea-corals-that-can-withstand-climate-change/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Feb 2022 21:00:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marta Vidal]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/02/14200822/Red-Sea-Corals.-Courtesy-of-Transnational-Red-Sea-Center.-Photo-by-Guilhem-BAN-PRANDI-1-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=252651</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Jordan and Middle East]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Animals, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Fish, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[AQABA, Jordan – Dozens of tiny, dazzlingly colorful fish swim around a maze of layer upon layer of corals. When divers approach, they hide near a dome-shaped colony. In the clear, warm waters of Aqaba, clownfish, butterflyfish and angelfish swim next to a military tank deliberately sunk in the 1990s, now one of several wrecks [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[AQABA, Jordan – Dozens of tiny, dazzlingly colorful fish swim around a maze of layer upon layer of corals. When divers approach, they hide near a dome-shaped colony. In the clear, warm waters of Aqaba, clownfish, butterflyfish and angelfish swim next to a military tank deliberately sunk in the 1990s, now one of several wrecks that have become popular diving sites. Over the years, the tank turned into a habitat for various marine species as corals started growing on it. With the pressures of climate change, coral reefs are bleaching and dying globally at an unprecedented rate. In the last 50 years, more than half of the world’s coral reef cover has been lost. Marine heat waves are devastating corals in the Mediterranean Sea. Experts predict that global warming and acidifying oceans could wipe out up to 90% of corals in the coming decades. But in Jordan, researchers are more hopeful as corals show no signs of mass bleaching. Red Sea corals. Image by Guilhem Banc-Prandi for Transnational Red Sea Center. “Corals in the Gulf of Aqaba can withstand higher temperatures,” says Jordanian conservationist Ehab Eid. “When most of the world’s corals are gone because of rising water temperatures, the corals in Aqaba might be the last remaining reefs.” While mass bleaching and death occur when corals are exposed to temperatures that are 1-2° Celsius (1.8-3.6° Fahrenheit) above their normal summer maximum, scientists found that the reefs in the Gulf of Aqaba, at the northern tip of the Red Sea,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/jordan-scrambles-to-save-rare-red-sea-corals-that-can-withstand-climate-change/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/jordan-scrambles-to-save-rare-red-sea-corals-that-can-withstand-climate-change/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-252651</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Planned copper mine raises fears for biodiversity hotspot in Jordan</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/planned-copper-mine-raises-fears-for-biodiversity-hotspot-in-jordan/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/planned-copper-mine-raises-fears-for-biodiversity-hotspot-in-jordan/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Nov 2021 14:10:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marta Vidal]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Genevieve Belmaker]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/11/03114455/Nubian-Ibex-Courtesy-of-Ehab-Eid-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=248911</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Jordan, and Middle East]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Copper, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Environmental Law, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forest Fragmentation, Forests, Governance, Mining, Mountains, Politics, Pollution, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[DANA, Jordan — Rugged hills frame a valley surrounded by evergreen oak, pistachio and pine trees in the village of Dana, where stone houses built centuries ago perch on the edge of a canyon that blends into the natural surroundings. At a crossroads between Europe, Africa and Asia, the Dana Biosphere Reserve is home to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[DANA, Jordan — Rugged hills frame a valley surrounded by evergreen oak, pistachio and pine trees in the village of Dana, where stone houses built centuries ago perch on the edge of a canyon that blends into the natural surroundings. At a crossroads between Europe, Africa and Asia, the Dana Biosphere Reserve is home to Jordan’s most diverse wildlife, spreading from mountains and sandstone cliffs more than 1,200 meters (4,000 feet) high, to desert plains 50 m (164 ft) below sea level. “I love the peace and quiet here,” says Samia Khawaldeh, who lives in the region and works in the production of local jams, herbal infusions, and handmade crafts sold at the reserve. But the calmness Khawaldeh values may soon be threatened by the noise of explosions and bulldozers coming to extract the area’s mineral resources. In August, the Jordanian government announced it would expropriate about one-third of Dana reserve’s 300 square kilometers (116 square miles) to allow copper prospecting and extraction, saying there are 45 million tons of the metal within its boundaries. In 2016, the government signed a memorandum of understanding with Manaseer, a Jordanian oil and gas company, giving the group permission to start prospecting in the country’s oldest and largest nature reserve. Sunrise in Dana valley. The Dana Biosphere Reserve is home to Jordan’s most diverse wildlife, spreading from mountains and sandstone cliffs. Image by Marta Vidal. For Jordanian conservationist Ehab Eid, the decision to allow mining in the nature reserve poses a serious threat&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/planned-copper-mine-raises-fears-for-biodiversity-hotspot-in-jordan/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/planned-copper-mine-raises-fears-for-biodiversity-hotspot-in-jordan/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-248911</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Two-thirds of the world’s population doesn’t have reliable access to fresh water</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/02/two-thirds-of-the-worlds-population-doesnt-have-reliable-access-to-fresh-water/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/02/two-thirds-of-the-worlds-population-doesnt-have-reliable-access-to-fresh-water/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Feb 2016 14:26:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mike Gaworecki]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/02/02175233/olympic_rainforest_0167-495x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arabian Desert, Australia, Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Global, Gobi Desert, India, Jordan, Libya, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sahara Desert, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, United States, and Yemen]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Global Environmental Crisis, Impact Of Climate Change, Water, and Water Scarcity]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[New research paints a sobering picture about the water crisis looming over our heads. Previous studies have estimated anywhere from 1.7 and 3.1 billion people are already living with severe water shortages. But those studies underestimated the extent of water scarcity, according to researchers at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, who published their [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[New research paints a sobering picture about the water crisis looming over our heads. Previous studies have estimated anywhere from 1.7 and 3.1 billion people are already living with severe water shortages. But those studies underestimated the extent of water scarcity, according to researchers at the University of Twente in the Netherlands, who published their findings in the journal Science Advances last week. The researchers say their results show that two-thirds of the global population &mdash; some four billion people, half of them in India or China &mdash; currently live under conditions of severe water scarcity at least one month out of the year. As many as half a billion people face severe water scarcity all year, the University of Twente researchers found. Prior studies that determined water scarcity was less widespread tended only to examine the issue at the level of very large spatial units, such as river basins, or only looked at water scarcity on an annual rather than on a monthly basis. “Measuring at a basin scale and on an annual basis hides the water scarcity that manifests itself in particular places and specific parts of the year,” the authors of the Science Advances article wrote. Previous studies also underestimated water scarcity by failing to account for the flow levels required to sustain ecosystems and livelihoods that depend on them. But “measuring the variability of water scarcity within the year helps to reveal what is actually experienced by people locally,” the researchers wrote. “More than a billion&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/02/two-thirds-of-the-worlds-population-doesnt-have-reliable-access-to-fresh-water/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/02/two-thirds-of-the-worlds-population-doesnt-have-reliable-access-to-fresh-water/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-179089</doi>				</item>
			</channel>
</rss>