Jordan Project Component
• Dr Ajlouni, National Project Manager, attended the World Conservation Congress in Amman on 4-11 October 2000, in which more than 2000 people representing 140 countries and local, regional and international NGOs participated. The Congress provided the National Project Manager with an opportunity to talk about the status of agrobiodiversity in Jordan and the activities of the GEF project.
• The fifth National Steering Committee meeting was held at NCARTT headquarters on 22 November 2000 and discussed the Project's achievements in its first year of implementation, the public awareness proposal presented by the Jordanian Environment Society (JES) and the workplan for the second year. The NCARTT Director General agreed to designate one person to coordinate public awareness activities with JES.
• Dr Ajlouni was chosen as a member of the National Steering Committee of Biodiversity. He attended two committee meetings that discussed the National strategy and work plan.
• The Project Component team initiated contacts with the Swedish Mercy Establishment and the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and discussed possible collaboration that would enhance farmers' alternative sources of income through the promotion of agrobiodiversity products. The Project Manager also met with the Director of the Gender Department at the Ministry of Agriculture and discussed the need to promote local agricultural products. As a result, the Project team participated in the Muwaqqar fair where local traditional foods were presented to the visitors.

Lebanon Project Component
• Dr Wafa Khoury, National Project Manager, gave interviews to three national newspapers (Al Nahar, As-Safir and Al-Mustakbal) about the urgent need to protect agrobiodiversity from losses and the strategy followed by the GEF-UNDP Dryland Agrobiodiversity Project in promoting the conservation of target species.
• The Project, in collaboration with the Mashreq/Maghreb Project, organized a local community fair day at Arsal and Dar Al-Ahmar. More than 100 people representing farmers, local NGOs, decision makers and extension agents attended this event where project strategies were discussed and related posters were presented.
• The Project team participated in "Science Day" organized by LARI on 18 November 2000. More than 200 participants from different ministries, universities, NGOs and farmers attended. Dr Khoury presented the Project's strategy, objectives and first year achievements. Project posters were presented.
• Two students were selected to work for their Masters degree at the American University of Beirut in areas related to the conservation of dryland agrobiodiversity.

Palestinian Project Component
• All the planned activities were conducted even though the ongoing conflict restricted the team's movements. Most of the demonstration trials on landraces were conducted in farmers' fields and at experiment stations. The Project, in collaboration with a number of development projects, demonstrated available technologies for rangeland improvement.
• Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem (ARIJ) presented the draft report on eco-geographic survey and Al-Najah University was contracted to conduct public awareness activities after the finalization of the workplan.

Syria Project Component
• Two farmers, Mr Abdel Al-Satar from Al-Haffa and Mr Nawaf Al-Adwan, showed great interest in nurseries exclusively directed to the multiplication of fruit tree target species and their wild relatives and neglected fruit tree species found in the region. The Project will provide the needed technical backstopping to Mr Adnan Mostafa from Al-Haffa for upgrading his fruit tree nursery that would include the multiplication of landraces and wild relatives of targeted species.
• The Project teams in Al-Haffa and Sweida collected the seeds of fruit tree target species and seeds of under-utilized and neglected species such as Zizyphus and Crataegus species.

Regional Project Component
• Dr Theib Oweis and his two assistants visited the project sites in Lebanon for seven days. Demonstrations of water harvesting techniques were conducted with farmers and the project team during these visits.
• Dr Chikhali from ACSAD and Dr Amri helped the National Project Component of Lebanon in the survey of wild fruit trees from 7 to 11 November 2000. This provided them with a good opportunity to visit the Project team's exhibition stand during the AgriTech 2000 fair.
• The Regional Coordinator visited Jordan for four days to attend the fifth National Steering Committee meeting and to explain to the Project team the survey methodology for wild fruit trees.
• Visits to project sites in Sweida and Lattakia in Syria allowed the Regional Coordinator to explain the wild fruit trees survey methodology.
• The program of the regional course on the Use of GIS/RS and data management was finalized and circulated to the National Project Components.