Once completed the directory will have a number of important functions, 
including: 
• to guide the implementation of national conservation strategies and in 
particular to promote the development of national protected-area 
programmes; 
• to inform decision makers at all levels of the existence of these vital 
habitats and thereby to enable them to oppose land-use proposals which 
would be incompatible with habitat conservation; 
• to provide an ind ication of the sites which are currently threatened and / 
or inadequately protected so as to assist the lobbying activities of national 
and international conservation bodies; 
• to serve the conservation activities of international governmental 
organisations; 
• to promote the implementation of global agreements such as the Ramsar 
Convention (on wetlands), Bonn Convention (on migratory species) and 
'World Heritage' Convention. 
OSME is contributing £3,000 to the project, a very substantial sum for an 
organisation such as ours. The project's major sponsor is The Royal 
Society for the Protection of Birds (UK), and the project will also receive 
data and technical support from the International Waterfowl and Wetlands 
Research Bureau. 
For further information, please contact: Mike Evans, 'IBAs in the Middle East' 
Compiler, ICBP, 32 Cambridge Road, Girton, Cambridge CB3 OPJ, UK. Tel: (0223) 
277318. Telex: 818794 ICBP G. FAX: (0223) 277200. 
Is Azraq still an oasis? 
Ian Andrews 
It is now 10 years since anything up to date has appeared in OSME 
publications about the famous Azraq oasis in eastern Jordan. In what 
state would members of the 1963 Jordan Expedition (Mountford 1965) 
find the Azraq oasis if they returned today? Change has certainly been 
widespread and far-reaching in the last 28 years, in a country that has 
severe water problems and a rapidly growing human population. 
Improvements in access are the first obvious change, with the long desert 
treks replaced by a choice of two well-used tarmac roads. However, with 
trade routes from Amman and Syria to Iraq, Saudi and the Gulf states 
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