Lower House panel approves construction of military academy

By Hana Namrouqa

AMMAN - Jordan's main environment watchdog on Wednesday decried a Lower House panel’s decision to approve the construction of a military academy in Bergesh Forest although the site has been relocated.

In a statement issued yesterday, the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN) said the project will entail the uprooting of 300 centennial trees and the destruction of ecosystems and wildlife habitats.

The RSCN said the Lower House committee looking into the construction of the academy in Bergesh, located some 90 kilometers northwest of the capital in Ajloun Governorate, has approved construction of the project.

But MP Saleh Wreikat, who heads the House Water and Agriculture Committee, said the project had been relocated and no centennial trees would be uprooted in the new site.

Confirming yesterday that the panel approved the project, he said the plot of land contains no trees, “except for a passage that includes less than a hundred non-centennial forest trees".

"The Jordan Armed Forces proposed several locations in Bergesh… but the committee rejected them because they involved the uprooting of several trees," Wreikat told The Jordan Times yesterday.

Following several deliberations, a plot of land that is not state-owned or planted with centennial trees was agreed upon, and thus the project has been approved, he added.

According to the RSCN, the project would violate several laws.

"If the project continues, it will be in clear violation of Article 35, paragraph B of the Agriculture Law, which forbids uprooting, damaging or violating any centennial or rare forest trees and threatened wild plants," said the statement that was e-mailed to The Jordan Times yesterday.

In addition, the project will also be in violation of Article 13 of the Environment Protection Law, which in paragraph A, obliges all under construction projects that could affect the environment to prepare an environment impact assessment (EIA) and refer it to the concerned ministry, the statement said.

Paragraph B of the same article stipulates that the minister has the right to ask any institution whose activities could affect the environment to carry out an EIA for its projects if required.

According to Wreikat, an EIA had been conducted on the new site and was in the project’s favor.

The RSCN said it is aware of the benefits of investments in generating job opportunities.

"But we are also aware of what it means to leave issues unregulated or governed by ambiguous conditions which do not satisfy the demands of parties that consider the protection of the environment as their main priority," the statement indicated.

The UN has declared 2011 as the International Year of Forests with the aim of spreading awareness and achieving sustainable management of forests around the world, the RSCN said.

"Would our first initiative in the International Year of Forests be demolishing and damaging our forests?" the statement said.

The RSCN warned against environmental consequences if the project is implemented and called on the project supervisors to select a different location within Ajloun Governorate to avoid cutting down even one tree.

According to Wreikat, a written commitment between the Lower House committee and the Jordan Armed Forces ensures that no forest trees will be uprooted during the construction process and that in return for every uprooted tree, 100 trees will be planted around the construction site.

The green cover in Bergesh is 90 per cent, according to the RSCN, which noted that the forest represents an integrated ecosystem and is home to over 100 plant species, 13 per cent of them rare, 4 per cent locally and internationally threatened and 13 per cent with medicinal value.

Work on the project was halted earlier this year when the Ministry of Environment requested an EIA after several environmental NGOs objected to the original site of the academy, which entailed uprooting 2,200 trees including oak, pistachio, hawthorn and strawberry.

28 April 2011

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://www.jordantimes.com/?news=36939.