Department of Agriculural and Forestry Sciences
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Department of Agriculural and Forestry Sciences PhD in Sciences and Technologies for the Forest and Environmental Management – XXVIII Cycle Scientific Sector-Disciplinary AGR/05 Plant Biodiversity in West Bank: Strategic tools for Conservation and Management PhD Thesis Presented by Dott. ssa NISREEN AL-QADDI Coordinatore Supervisor Prof. Bartolomeo Schirone Prof. Bartolomeo Schirone Signature ……………………. Signature ……………………. Tutors: Prof. Bartolomeo Schirone Dr. Federico Vessella Dr. Marco Cosimo Simeone. Dr. Michela Celestini This Thesis submitted in fullfillment of requirments for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Academic years 2013-2016 DIPARTIMENTO DI SCIENZE AGRARIE E FORESTALI Corso di Dottorato di Ricerca in Scienze e tecnologie per la gestione forestale ed ambientale –XXVIII Ciclo Settore Scientifico-Disciplinare AGR/05 Plant Biodiversity in West Bank: Strategic tools for Conservation and Management Tesi di dottorato di ricerca Dottorando Dott. ssa NISREEN AL-QADDI Coordinatore Supervisor Prof. Bartolomeo Schirone Prof. Bartolomeo Schirone Firma ……………………. Firma ……………………. Tutors: Prof. Bartolomeo Schirone Dott. Federico Vessella Dott. Marco Cosimo Simeone. Dott.ssa. Michela Celestini Anni Accademici 2013-2016 The Phd thesis “Plant Biodiversity in West Bank: Strategic tools for Conservation and Management” has been defined by Nisreen Alqaddi (Palestine) in June 27, 2016. The Thesis comitte memebers are: Prof. Bartolomeo Schirone, Universita’ degli Studi della TusciaDAFNE. Prof. Maurizio Badiani, Universita’ degli Studi di Reggio Calabria, Dip. di Agraria. Prof. Massimo Trabalza Marinucci, Universita’ degli Studi di Perugia, Dip. di Medicina Veterinaria. Tutors: Prof. Bartolomeo Schirone. Dr. Federico Vessella. Dr. Marco Cosimo Simeone. Dr. Michela Celestini. DEDICATION This Thesis dedicated to My Father, who has raised me to be the person I am today, thank you for all the unconditional love, guidance, and support that you have always given me, thank for everything that you have done, you are to me what to earth the sun is. I don’t think that even if I searched the world for years and years and years I would find someone that is as caring, as thoughtful, and as hardworking as you. My mother, Thank you for believing in me, encouraging me to do my best and to try new things.I love myself and I am proud of myself. I have confidence and I believe in myself because of you. Thank you for supporting my dreams and ideas, even when they seem far-fetched or silly to you. I need to make mistakes and have failures to grow, so thanks for being there when I’m down, and for helping me find my way back up. My brothers; Ashraf, Mohammed ata and Maen, thanks for your love and encouragement, Thank you for giving me the confidence not to care about what other people think. I love you so much. My friends, Thank you so much for walking along in the way of life with me, you have no doubt made my journey easy, life would have been so boring and exhausting if would have missed your companionship, i would like to say special thank to Maha Kaabne, Rasha Ghrouf, Bassem Abu Al Rob and Ahmad Al-Ghool Loving thanks to my for my Aunts, uncle and cousins for your continual love and support Eter Abulicze, who proffered me unconditional love and support. Thanks to be my friend and my confidant, you have been a great source of inspiration to me. I would also like to express my sincere thanks to my colleagues in Tuscia University for their loving care, patience and support along the way. I would like to thank all my Arabic friends in Italy, who faith in me, support and help. Yours sincerely Nisreen i اهداء أهدي هذا العمل المتواضع إلى أبي الذي لم يبخل علي يوما بشيء وإلى أمي التي ذودتني بالحنان والمحبة أقول لهم: أنتم وهبتموني الحياة واﻷمل والنشأة على شغف اﻻطﻻع والمعرفة وإلى إخوتي وأسرتي جميعا ثم إلى كل من علمني حرفا أصبح سنا برقه يضيء الطريق أمامي احبكم جميعا ابنتكم نسرين ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I’m realy grateful to the European Commission for their financial support through a grant DEBPAL2 project, where the doctoral degree is an integral part of this project. My special recognition and deep thanks and great gratitude to my university “Al-Quds University”, which trusted in me and nominated me to get a PhD, so I would like to thank with all my heart all my professors who supported me and helped me with their knowledge, and gave me their time and efforts to carry out the fields trips, collecting the information; Dr. Jihad Abbadi, Dr. Ibrahim Abbasi, Dr. Khaled Sawalha, Dr. Mutaz Qutob and Dr. Abd Elkareem Alsharif. There is a person i need to mention especially, Dr. Ghadeer Omar (AL-Najah University) for her sincere gratitude and kindness, her useful contributions and support. I would like to express my cordial thanks and great gratitude to my supervisor Prof. Bartolomeo Schirone. and my tutors Dr. Federico Vessella, Dr. Marco Cosimo Simeone and Dr. Michela Celestini for their helpful and precious advices, suggestions and guidance for the achievement of my work, and all the time that they dedicated me, but especially for their kindness, their encouragements and for the confidence that they had in me during all these yrears. Thanks also go to Dr. Federico Vessella for his supervision, help and assistance particularly during my stay in Viterbo. Thanks also to the Tuscia University of Viterbo (Italy) for the opportunity provided to me to achieve this academic goal. My sincere thanks and gratitude to the Ministry of Agriculture representative in the staff of forestry department: Thaer Rabi, Husam Taleeb and Eng.Bassem Hamad. I wish also to thank all the studenst from Al-Quds University who have helped me in the field trips Imad AL-Jabali, Mahmoud Aburahmah, shatha Sawallha, Abd Alrahman AL-Moghrabi and Mohsen Sarhan I wish also to thank Mr. Samih Jarar (National Agricultural Research Center “NARC”), for his scientific support, as well as his kindness. Thanks also to the examiners who provided valuable feedback, Prof. Maurizio Badiani and Prof. Massimo Trabalza Marinucci iii ABSTRACT Biological Diversity (Biodiversity), it says, refers to variety in nature, variety within the living world. The term Biodiversity is commonly used to indicate the number, variety and variability of living organisms. The action of management requires capacity of measurement, and measures of diversity only become possible when a quantitative value can be ascribed to them and these values can be compared. And in Palestine, like other countries of the world the biodiversity conservation has become an urgent need, and it has been preparing this study to introduce a part of the reality of the environmental situation in general and the reality of plant life in particular in West Bank- Palestine, whereas; the information and data contained in this research constitute an important tool is discussing the problems associated with the environmental realities of biodiversity and the factors that affect it, it is essential to take action in a general way: in order to obtain that Biodiversity reaches an acceptable level everywhere, globally in the territory, and everyone must learn how to contribute to its preservation and defence by thinking globally. The most important steps that have been taken to perform this study is select the study areas within the specific criterias (will be mentioned later), collect information of each site before starting the fieldtrips. Tha main aim of the current studt to set up a wide framework of activities to be inserted as starting point of Guide Lines and best practices to be performed for Biodiversity “inventory” and Biodiversity “strengthening and enhancement with regard to the West Bank, with a specific attention to some areas (selected sites) representative of the main forest environments occurring in West Bank, by providing an ecological description of the investigated species and their habitats, relying on the current data availability to conserve the existing species to preserve the biodiversity through; perceive and understand the status of the main plants species and their distribution in order to protect them, and give warnings and appropriate solutions and/or best practices when any risk act. For arrivals to achieve these goals is through learning and applying some teaching techniques that will link between reality and science. This study highlights on the environmental situation and the plant diversity in the areas under study (six selected sites) at the level of West Bank, and iv it also highlights the plant species characteristic in West Bank, the forests and their types and the deterioration in them and the green area in West Bank. Based on this study, including those related action plan, analysis and results, put the most important tools (herbarium, seeds bank, GIS and DNA barcode) and select the most important sites that need protection and management in West Bank, this study can be considered as project can adobted by the stakeholders to extend and include all forests and important plant areas. v TABLE OF CONTENT DEDICATION i ACKNOLEDGMENT iii اهداء ABSTRACT iv Chapter One: Introduction 1 1.1 What is biodiversity? 1 1.2 The geopolitical situation 3 1.3 Biodiversity in Palestine (at the level of historical Palestine) 5 1.4 Biodiversity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) 8 1.5 Changes in the green cover by human impact, Israeli occupation, and other threats to the biodiversity of species 9 1.6 Forests and protected areas 11 1.7 National Parks, Nature rserves, and Landscape Reserves 14 1.8 The problems and difficulties facing the forest and nature reserves management in OPT 15 1.9 Aims of the present study 15 Chapter two: Materials and Methods 17 2.1 The work flow 17 2.2 Selected Sites 18 2.2.1. Hebron 20 2.2.2. Salfit 24 2.2.3.