Protected areas establishment is one of the main tools for nature conservation.

Protected areas are not just any piece of land; they are the biodiversity hotspots in any given country. In Jordan, the selection of protected areas has a relatively long history. The first action of recommending protected areas took place in 1963, as the conclusion of a British expedition that recommended the establishment of Azraq Oasis and its basin as a protected area due to its global significance. The British expedition had carried out brief studies in Azraq that showed the significance of this part of the country. Other sites that were recommended at that time included Petra, the Wadi Araba part of the Jordan Rift Valley, a small forest area in Ajloun and Ma’in hot springs. Little happened until 1968, when Patra National Park was established; although this national park did not include any part of the Jordan Rift Valley and was only limited to the mountains of Petra.

The establishment of protected areas was also hampered by the fact that legislation was not in place – a national parks law had been drafted in 1970, but this was not incorporated into national legislation. Although legislation was still pending, by 1975, two small protected areas had been established in the Rift Valley by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, namely Dibeen and Zarqa Ma’in. However, both were only considered as not being more than small recreation areas or picnic sites that did not qualify for the title of National Park.

In 1979, the IUCN/WWF report on Development of Wildlife Conservation in Jordan II: A Proposal for Wildlife Reserves in Jordan (Clarke, 1979) recommended the establishment of a network of protected areas based on an evaluation of ecosystems and land types. This report recommended the establishment of twelve sites: 

• Mujib Nature Reserve; located along the Dead Sea and up to the highlands of Karak. 
• Jebel Masadi (Mas’uda) Nature Reserve, which covers the highlands to the west of Petra and all the way down to Wadi Arab. 
• Ajloun (Zubya) Woodland Reserve, which is a small nature reserve covering part of the evergreen oak woodlands of Ajloun. 
• Dana Nature Reserve, which covers the highlands in Tafileh and goes all the way down to Wadi Araba. 
• Wadi Rum Nature Reserve, which was to consist of eastern desert (Hisma) habitat. 
• Abu Rukbeh Nature Reserve which covers part of the plains in Karak area. 
• Jarba Nature Reserve, which covers a small part of the Mediterranean non-forest plains in Ma’an area. 
• Azraq Wetland Reserve, which covers the oasis in Azraq. 
• Shaumari Wildlife Reserve, which covers a very small part of the Eastern Desert. 
• Burqu’ Nature Reserve, which covers a part of the Ruwaished Desert including the wetland of Ghadeer Burqu. 
• Rajil Nature Reserve, which was considered as the largest proposed nature reserve at that time and it covers a part of the Eastern Desert to the south of Azraq. 
• Bayir Nature Reserve, which covers a part of the Southeastern Desert of the country.

Through the 1980s and 90s, six of these proposed nature reserves were established, namely Zubya, Dana, Mujib, Azraq, Shaumari and Wadi Rum. In 1998, RSCN decided to carry out another Protected Areas Review. There were two major aims for this review; to re-evaluate the un-established nature reserves in order to see if they still maintained the conservation value for which they were proposed in the first place; and to propose new nature reserve which the first review in 1979 had overlooked.

This review of nature reserves found that many habitats were not adequately protected. Using the IUCN criterion, a minimum of 4% of each habitat/vegetation type should be included in the protected areas system. Of all the vegetation types in Jordan, only sand dunes, saline areas and open waters are adequately protected. Other habitat types are offered some protection, except for Aleppo pine forest and deciduous oak forest, which are not included in any of the existing protected areas.

As result of this review, six further nature reserves were proposed and these are: 

• Dibeen Forest Reserve, which covers a part of the Aleppo Pine Forests which were not represented by the 1979 review; 
• Jordan River Nature Reserve (Baptism Site or Maghtas), which is located along the Jordan River and covers a part of the tropical vegetation that has been poorly represented in the 1979 review; 
• Qatar Nature Reserve, which is located in the southern part of Wadi Araba and covers two major vegetation types, Acacia and Rocky Sudanian and Mudflat, which were poorly represented in the 1979 review; 
• Aqaba Mountains Nature Reserve, which covers the tropical, Acacia and Rocky Sudanian vegetation types; 
• Fifa Nature Reserve, which is located at the southern edge of the Dead Sea and represents a desert oasis that covers the tropical and mudflat vegetation types; 
• Yarmouk Nature Reserve, which is the northernmost site in the country and covers the deciduous oak woodlands, which were not represented at all through the review of 1979.

All twelve proposed nature reserves (6 proposed in 1979 and 6 proposed in 1998), were ‘weighed’ according to the IUCN criteria for protected areas establishment, after having the criteria modified by RSCN in order for it to be better customized to the country. Each proposed nature reserve was evaluated and grades were given to each one of them according to the above-mentioned criteria. Logically, the protected areas that had the highest grades were considered as the ones of high priority for establishment.

The results of this grading system showed that Dibeen Forest Reserve was on the top of the priority list. For this reason, RSCN has worked diligently on establishing this reserve, and was greeted by success in 2004. At present, RSCN is working on establishing other high priority sites, including Burqu, which was evaluated to be second in priority after Dibeen.

RSCN is now working in coordination with several stakeholders in that part of the country, including local communities, in order to establish this reserve in the near future. Other reserves that scored high grades of importance include Yarmouk, Fifa, Jabal Mas’uda and Qatar. These proposed reserves are going to be established through the Integrated Ecosystem Management of the Jordan Rift Valley Project, which will be initiated in 2007 and will last for six years. As for the other proposed nature reserves, they are still included as part of the future plans for RSCN.