The Documentation of Egypt's Natural Heritage

The "The documentation of Egypt's Natural Heritage" program a multidisciplinary program aiming at a computerized documentation, dissemination and communication of the data available on the natural heritage of Egypt. It involves the collection of all data available on the protectorates as well as the diverse habitats and their components in the country. The latter includes the detailed information on the Flora, Fauna, geological formations and cultural features related to specific sites or protected areas.
The data will be organized in the form of a searchable, user- friendly database associated with a GIS-mapping of existing and proposed protectorates as well as the distribution of the various plant and animal species within them.
The program aims at the dissemination and communication of the information via a series of publications, books, CDs and internet.

Program objectives

• Enhance Egypt's capacity to conserve its natural heritage, through dissemination and making available accurate knowledge of its components and their status.
• Promote Egypt's potential as an ecotourism destination, through providing an easy to use resource, which demonstrates and summarizes the biological and natural richness of the country.
• Provide de;cision makers, researchers and consultants with an effective and reliable tool, which can respond efficiently to their demands and queries.
• Enhance Egypt's capacity to implement international conservation commitments, through a wider dissemination of these commitments.
• Facilitate communication and cooperation amongst agencies and research bodies concerned with natural heritage in Egypt.

Program work plan

• The building of an up-to-date information system on the protectorates of Egypt which could be used as a monitoring, assessment and management tool by various stakeholders in the field of conservation, protectorates and environmental policy making.
  
• The documentation of the natural heritage of the country in the form of a database.
  
• The identification of the natural heritage components under threat of extinction, endangered, rare or endemic to the country.
  
• Linking the natural heritage database to that of the cultural heritage in Egypt for specific sites.
  
• Linking the natural heritage database of Egypt to other databases in the region, continent or worldwide.

Program outputs

Continuously up-datable computerized databank, associated with GIS maps and images, on the existing and potential protected areas in Egypt.
A complete survey of the natural heritage components of Egypt in the form of a database transferable to a series of CD-ROMs and to be available on the web site.

Simplified, user-friendly, generously illustrated CD-ROMs on:

• The protectorates of Egypt.
  
• The natural/cultural heritage sites of special interest.
  
• The plants of the land of pharaohs.
  
• The birds of Egypt.
  
• The mammals of Egypt.

A multi-media encyclopedia encompassing various aspects of the natural heritage of Egypt with special reference to the deserts, their landscapes, dwellers, geological formations and history.

Potential Users

• Environmental policy makers.
  
• Individuals and organizations concerned with conservation, sustainable development and protectorate management issues.
  
• Researchers, teachers and students of natural history, environmental studies and earth sciences.
  Visitors to protectorates.
  
• Interested public and Layman.
  
• ENGOs