Princess Basma Bint Ali Opening Jordan's Royal Botanic Gardens

From April 2, 2015

A new botanical garden is about to open in Jordan, which the founders hope will help preserve the kingdom's natural heritage, raise environmental awareness, and protect threatened species.

It's been backed by Princess Basma bint Ali - and has been a ten year labour of love for the team behind it.

445 acres of outstanding natural beauty.

This is Jordan's Royal Botanical Garden, founded on the steep slopes beside the King Talal dam.

Sitting atop Tal Al-Rumman, about 25 km (15 miles) north of Amman, the area is being restored to five natural habitats found in the country. These are: deciduous oak forests, pine forests, juniper forests, freshwater and Jordan Valley habitats. Still closed to the public, it's taken almost ten years to gradually repair the landscape and ecosystems. The site includes a wide variety of soils and microclimates, a seed bank, two nurseries, several wadi systems, and almost 1,000 feet (304 metres) of elevation change. Her Royal Highness Princess Basma bint Ali founded the garden in 2005 after seeing incredible environmental devastation throughout the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. "Currently Jordan is one of the four most adversely effected nations in the world, but despite this we decided that we could not let our natural wealth just disappear. The old and the young generations must all work to raise awareness about how much natural resources we have," she explains. "Sure, we don't have oil here in Jordan, but oil isn't everything. Despite this lack, we have a great wealth and that is our environment and our climate. Thank God who gave us all this blessing. We must, it is our duty, to protect it." Today, scientists from Uganda, Kenya, the UK, USA, as well as regional delegates from Lebanon, Egypt and Oman are taking a tour of the site. They're part of a forum run by the Ecological Restoration Alliance (ERA) entitled 'Restoring Degraded Ecosystems: Regional and International Perspectives.'

Princess Basma bint Ali plans to use the garden as a pilot project to restore a hundred degraded sites by 2020. "We always say, 'we want development, we want development,' but how will we develop if we don't have foundations? I predict that now we must change our way of understanding, and this is our message. We must take our future in our own hands - of course God controls our fate - but we must strive and work. We don't have time," she says.

It's hoped that the gardens will become as an eco-tourism destination. It will feature hiking trails and a small eco-camp site inside Jordan's five major ecosystems. "Our goals in the beginning of the idea of the Royal Botanical Garden, before it was founded by Princess Basma bint Ali, we wanted it to be a research centre, to educate our citizens, to learn more about Jordan's indigenous plants and their ecosystems, habitats, and what is threatening them so we can make a suitable garden for them without these pressures that might destroy them," says Hatem Tayfour, a Royal Botanical Garden botanist.

The Garden has plans to demonstrate earth architecture, alternative energy, rainwater harvesting, permaculture-based organic food production, and other sustainable technologies.

In 2002, Princess Basma bint Ali was presented with a United Nations Environment Award for her work championing the environment and sustainable development. 

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