Mandate of IUCN WAME
The IUCN West Asia/ Middle East Regional Office cover the region of West Asia including the countries of Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Yemen.
IUCN WAME aims to be active in all of the 13 countries in various conservation and sustainable development activities. The critical issues facing the region are:
- Land degradation, aridity and desertification
- Unsustainable water extraction and use
- Biodiversity and habitat loss, and species extinction.
- Threats to sensitive marine ecosystems through pollution, habitat destruction, introduction of invasive alien species, and unplanned coastal development.
The IUCN WAME role is to coordinate activities on major issues in the overall region, such as: water, biodiversity, protected areas, and environmental legislation. As though environmental priorities are intimately associated with poverty, equity, climate change, security and conflict, mainstreaming conservation efforts with the development agenda becomes very crucial. Our mandate is to work supportively, and in collaboration with our members and partners, including NGOs and governments, to achieve a new paradigm for sustainable development based on the concept of people centered development.
IUCN key role is to share critical conservation knowledge with all of our members and partners. Our current focus is to provide services which bring "value-added" to the ongoing and emergent activities of Members and Partners while also building awareness of the IUCN WAME region and its special strengths.
The IUCN WAME Regional Office Thematic Programmes include: Regional Water Resources & Drylands (REWARD) Programme; a Protected Areas Programme; a Poverty, Equity & Gender Programme, and a Marine Programme. Through these thematic programmes we will unite strengths of IUCN components to share knowledge and to develop new models for conservation and sustainable development.
