Jordan's Nature Reserves

G.Wesley Burnett & Ingrid E. Schneider

Photos and Maps

Shaumari Nature Reserve, June, 1996. The heavily vegetated boundary between Shaumari, which has not been grazed except by wildlife in more than 50 years, and the overgrazed area beyond it is clearly apparent. Much of Jordan’s ‘desert’ is anthropogenic, that is man-created, the result of serious overgrazing (Photo: G. W. Burnett).	Karak Plateau, June, 1997. The majority of Jordan’s Mediterranean shrub and woodland, is now devoted to agriculture and settlement (Photo: G. W. Burnett).
Wadi Rum in southern Jordan is an important link between African and Asian and European biomes (Photo G. W. Burnett, July 1996).	Many of Clarke’s suggested reserves are too far beyond the threat of development on general touristic interest to demand attention at the present time. Such is the case with the Bayir Wells, known to the Romans and a staging area for the attack on Aqaba in WWI (Photo G. W. Burnett, July 1996).
Azraq Wetlands remain Jordan’s highest conservation priority (Photo: G. W. Burnett, July 1998).	Zubia Biological Reserve in northern Jordan appears to be an uneventful landscape but is among the last stands of Mediterranean woodlands and habitat for European fauna, most notably several species of deer (Photo: G. W. Burnett, July, 1996).
Abu Rukbah, a proposed reserve (Photo: G. W. Burnett, July, 1997).	The mouth of Wadi Mujib, a site currently being dammed (Photo: G. W. Burnett, June, 1996).
Arabian oryx, Shaumari (Photo: G. W. Burnett, June, 1996).	Nubian ibex, Wadi Mujib (Photo: G. W. Burnett, July, 1996).
Experimenting with ostrich, Shaumari (Photo: G. W. Burnett, June, 1996).	Tourist campground, Dana Reserve (Photo: G. W. Burnett, July, 1999).
Dana village (Photo: G. W. Burnett, June, 1998).	Seen from T. E. Lawrence’s perspective, Dana village is a good example of development of a tell (Photo: G. W. Burnett, June, 1998).
	Table Map
Lowering of the water in the ‘Ain Soda pool, Azraq Wetlands resulted in the discovery of several important Paleolithic sites now being excavated (Photo: G. W. Burnett, July, 1999).