Damascus 11/ 05/2014
Under the generous patronage of the Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs (MSEA) and in cooperation with the GEF Small Grants Programme (SGP), the Syrian Society for the Conservation of Wildlife (SSCW) held the concluding workshop of the project: Improving the Conservation Status of Globally Threatened birds at Jabboul Wetland , on Sunday May 11, 2014 at the Blue Tower Hotel in Damascus.
The Project aimed at strengthening the enforcement of hunting laws and regulations and enhance more responsible practices for birds hunting in Al Jabboul Ramsar site and improving the hunters and locals awareness of the need to conserve birds and their habitat. The workshop has presented highlights of the most important outcomes of the project delivered by SSCW. These achievements are categorized by the outputs for this project, the most important of which are:
- Building a bird watching tower on the banks of the Sabkhat Al-Jabboul;
- Rehabilitation of the main square at the entrance to Al-Jabboul village(the flamingo roundabout);
- Surveys on the state of hunting and hunters at Al-Jabboul area;
- Preparing and printing a guide for the Best Practices in Hunting;
- Providing 20 solar cookers for distribution to the locals at Al-Jabboul village;
- Providing bird ringing equipment and training technical personnel on how to ring and record birds;
- Training part of the local community about the sustainable management of natural resources.
- Combat of pollution: SSCW started a very important campaign to stop the pollution which results from a private chemical factory (SYSACO), and in cooperation with the MSEA, the factory was stopped from operation until the rehabilitation of its waste treatment station is reached.
- Publishing the First National Bird Field Guide in Syria: SSCW has published in cooperation with Birdlife International the first national Field Guide for Birds, documenting about 400 species in Syria.
