Project description

Title: Environmental Protection Programme for Land Use Planning in Urban-Industrial Areas
Commissioned by: Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung (BMZ)
Country: Syria
Lead executing agency: Ministry for Local Administration and Environment
Overall term: November 2003 to October 2005

Context

Land use planning is conducted on a purely technical basis in Syria, and from the standpoint of the administration. The needs of land users or land user groups are scarcely considered, and participatory planning is still for the most part unknown. Increasing agricultural production, particularly, has led in many parts of Syria to the spreading of agriculture to ecologically sensitive soils, and as a consequence to the enlargement of areas requiring irrigation.

Non-sustainable and inappropriate land use methods in combination with rapid population growth and the multiplication of settlements have led to severe degradation of natural resources. The sustainable management of natural resources is being hindered by non-transparent institutional and legal frameworks and the lack of capacity for a form of land use that is geared to ecological and cultural realities.

Objective

The institutional and legal prerequisites for participatory land use have been established.

Approach

The project is a component of the Environmental Protection Programme in Urban-Industrial Areas. It identifies the actors on the governmental level who are relevant to the promotion of participatory land-use planning, and also relevant consulting and research institutions. With project support, communication and coordination structures in the line ministries responsible are to be improved. In addition, in selected regions in Syria, participatory land use planning is being practiced on a pilot basis.