summaryreportoftheworkshop.docVIP

Summary Report of the Workshop Zafar Adeel1 and Monique Mainguet2 1United Nations University Tokyo Japan 2Laboratoire de Géographie Zonale pour le Développement, University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, France Summary Report of the Field Trip Day 1: Monday – 6 November, 2000 08:30-11:00 Travel from Damascus to Mehasseh 11:00-13:30 Visit to Mehasseh Research Station 13:30-15:00 Travel to Palmyra 15:00-16:00 Lunch check-in at Cham Hotel (Palmyra) 16:30-18:30 Tour in Palmyra 19:00-20:30 Dinner Reception Travel from Damascus to Mehasseh There is a rocky landscape with a very thin soil cover and a steppic vegetation cover (called Badia or Wadia in Arabic) between Damascus and Mehasseh. Generally, the land resources are quite degraded in part due to overgrazing and three consecutive drought years. The steppe region occupies 55 to 66% of the land in Syria where rainfall is less than 200 mm/year. This area is grazed from November to March (the rainy season) by the herds of the Bedouin (Syria has some 350,000 Bedouins); sometimes they are joined by Bedouins from Iraq. They typically return to the north during the dry season from April to October, where they graze the stubble of the agricultural land. The distance traveled by the Bedouin is about 200 km per year on the average. Importantly, there is no private ownership of the land which has consequences for natural resources management. Visit to Mehasseh Research Center for the Development of Natural Agricultural Resources in the Syrian Steppe The Mehasseh Research Centre is located about 120 km northeast of Damascus at an altitude of 800-950m (34°08 N and 37°2 E). It has a hot and dry summer, scarce rainfall (114 mm/yr) and an average annual evaporation of 1750 mm. During the last two years, this area has suffered a severe drought with annual rainfall under 35 mm/yr and a runoff of 0 to 27 %. The soil in this area is loamy with medium storage capacity and negligible organic matter. The area has historical