Current view: Text account
Site description (1999 baseline):
Site location and context
It is an agricultural and grazing region. It is located in the center of Jerusalem wildlife in the southern side of Bethlehem. In this area there is a monastery called Saint Saba monastery, which is locate near Wadi Qadron that starts from Jerusalem and reach the Dead Sea.
There is way to this monastery from the southern side and it is called Al Nabi Mousa way (the Jerusalem - Jericho way), and then from Al Sahara region to the southern side of the monastery through the desert and mount way at which a lot of tourist visit daily because of the beauty of this region, there is a main road from Bethlehem and pass by Beit Sahour and Village to the monastery region. The herder and their shepherd live in this region.
Wadi Qadron is a lasting stream. The sewage water is currently transferred from Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Beit Sahour, Beit Jala, and the Israeli’s settlements to this stream. This region consists of religious and historical ruins return to the fifth century, specially the remaining of the construction ruins on the top and the center of the mountain, which the animals and birds use it as a shelter during the winter and breeding time.
There is the Lesser Kestrel, it is registered about ten couples in the monastery region, and it nests in the walls of the monastery, the Sand Partridge, Tristram’s Grackle, Egyptian Vulture, and Palestine Sunbird are considered as resident birds in the monastery region.
Non-bird biodiversity: Plants: Anemone. Mammals: Gazelle, Rocky Hyrax, fox, and Hyeana.
Pressure/threats to key biodiversity
Garbage disposal in the monastery region by the persons that live in the villages.
Wadi Qadron is full of sewage water that comes from the Israeli’s settlements and some of the Palestinian countries.
The hunting.
The unjust grazing.
Conservation responses/actions for key biodiversity
The treatment of the garbage.
The organizing of the grazing in this region.
Prevention and organizing of the hunting especially in the coming three years.
Encouraging of the environmental tourism.
Training of tourist guides for the region in order to make environmental tourism trips.
Find solutions form the sewage water that comes from the countries and the Israeli settlements by managing the treatment projects to get use of the water that results from the treatment to irrigate the region. This gives the chance to decline the desertification problem.
Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Important Bird Area factsheet: Mar Saba - Wadi Qadron (Palestine). Downloaded from
https://datazone.birdlife.org/site/factsheet/mar-saba--wadi-qadron-iba-palestine on 23/11/2024.
