The West Asia Regional Program (WARP) continued its efforts to strengthen its partnership with the NARS of Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, and Syria to enhance productivity of crops and rangelands in the dry areas. This is mainly done through regional and bilateral projects conducted by multidisciplinary teams from national research institutes and universities, and with the involvement of NGOs and local communities. More than 15 projects are executed in the countries with technical backstopping from ICARDA. Most of the activities are conducted within four main projects: "Dryland Agrobiodiversity," "Mashreq and Maghreb," "Participatory Barley Breeding", and "Water and Soil Management." ICARDA's research station in Terbol, Lebanon is an integral component of these activities. Collaboration with Cyprus is focused on exchange of germplasm and expertise and contributions to priority setting.

The Dryland Agrobiodiversity Project
This project, supported by GEF/UNDP, aims at promoting community-driven in situ conservation and sustainable use of dryland agrobiodiversity in Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine Authority and Syria through a holistic approach involving integrated natural resource management. ICARDA is responsible for the regional coordination and networking among the national components and provides, in cooperation with IPGRI and ACSAD, technical backstopping and training.
     During 2002, the project made a significant impact at the community, national, and regional levels. More than 17,000 seedlings of wild fruit trees were planted during public awareness campaigns in Syria. In Jordan, Palestine and Syria, biodiversity and genetic resources units were created to promote the use of targeted species in afforestation and reforestation programs. Local NGOs and individual farmers in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria received support in the creation of 11 agrobiodiversity nurseries for raising seedlings of landraces and wild relatives of targeted fruit tress. Seven field genebanks and 11 in situ conservation sites were developed by the Project in the four countries, in addition to enrichment of their genebanks with more than 500 accessions of target species.
     Through ecogeographic surveys and the use of GIS/RS technologies, it was demonstrated that natural habitat destruction is the main factor causing the loss of diversity and depletion of wild relatives. The landraces of crops and fruit trees are being reduced by the introduction of new

The Mashreq and Maghreb Project
The final evaluation of the Project took place in April. The policy and property rights component of the project, which is implemented jointly with IFPRI, was evaluated in June. The evaluation teams met with the ministers of agriculture to share assessment and obtain their impressions about the project achievements and impact. The feedback was positive.

Workshops and coordination meetings
A regional workshop on "Integrated On-farm Water Husbandry" was held in Amman in March jointly with NCARTT and the University of Jordan. Participants from nine countries attended the workshop. This was followed by the Regional Steering Committee Meeting of the Project to discuss new proposals.
     In collaboration with ACSAD, IPGRI, UNEP-ROWA, FAO and AOAD, ICARDA organized the first Arab workshop on the "Implications of International Agreements on the Development of National Policies and Legislations Related to Biodiversity Conservation," in May at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo. More than 55 participants representing Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Iraq, the GEF-UNDP projects in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, and several guest speakers participated. Recommendations were made to the Arab League on better coordination of the efforts on conservation of biodiversity in the Arab world.
     A participatory barley breeding workshop was organized in Jordan in May in which 15 farmers and 7 technicians participated in selecting promising lines from the trials conducted jointly in fields of six farmers.
     WARP participated in the AARINENA General Conference, held in Amman in May. WARP also assisted IDRC in the organization of the " Third International Forum on Partnership between the Public and Private Sectors on Water Demand Management," held in Amman in October.
     The Fourth Regional Technical and Planning Coordination Meeting of Dryland Agrobiodiversity Project was held in Amman in September, and was attended by representatives of GEF and UNDP offices, DGs of national research institutes, national project managers and scientists from the four countries and from ICARDA, ACSAD and IPGRI-CWANA. The Regional Steering Committee Meeting followed on 15 September.
     The ICARDA/Lebanon Biennial Coordination Meeting was held at Tal Amara in October. A number of NGOs participated in the meeting and requested the assistance of LARI and ICARDA.
     The "Eleventh ICARDA/Jordan Biennial Coordination Meeting" held at NCARTT, Amman, in September, was attended by 120 national and 8 ICARDA researchers. A lead farmer shared his experience of achieving record yields using the newly developed barley, wheat, chickpea and vetch varieties.

Human resource development
The Regional Component of the Agrobiodiversity Project organized three training courses and participated in the conduct of 23 courses organized jointly with the National Components. A regional training course on "Participatory Plant Breeding and Conservation of Agrobiodiversity" was organized in Amman in March for 14 participants. The participants visited the barley trials conducted with farmers in Ramtha region. A traveling workshop for 13 farmers and Project staff from Jordan and Syria was organized to the project sites in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Another traveling workshop was organized for 20 women farmers from the four countries. They visited the food processing units and the project sites in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
     A traveling workshop was held in Jordan for seven Tunisians representing NGOs and project teams working on medicinal plants in Jordan and Lebanon.