Development - at what price? A review of the Lebanese authorities' management of the environment.

• Author: Masri, Rania

Throughout the 1990s we have seen rebuilding activities in Lebanon. The physical remnants of the war, particularly in the greater Beirut area, have been removed and replaced. Much of the media reporting on Lebanon has centered around this rebuilding, the "rebirth of the Phoenix." Although rebuilding the country is important, such efforts must be examined in their full context, including their impact on the environment and on the people it supports. How are the efforts by the Lebanese authorities at land management and infrastructure development affecting the very land of Lebanon? This question, often disregarded by the Lebanese government and agencies, is the central theme of this article.

Governmental responsibilities for the management of Lebanon's environment encompass wide aspects: wastewater, pollution, land use and coastal zone management, forests and agriculture, solid and hazardous waste, cultural heritage, industrial pollution, and water resources. These responsibilities are shared among nine ministries and eight key institutions: the Ministries of Agriculture, Environment, Tourism, Housing, Hydraulic and Electrical Resources, Public Health, Urban Affairs, Public Works, and Industry and Petroleum; and the Urban Planning Institution, Municipalities, Mohafaza, Caza, Council of Development and Reconstruction, Roads and Planning Institution, Council of Grand Projects, and Department of Antiquities (METAP, 1995). Lack of coordination among agencies hampered effective environmental management.

Numerous laws and decrees were issued by the Lebanese authorities, including the Ministries of Agriculture, Interior, Environment, and Hydraulic and Electrical Resources (Table 1). The problem was not so much with the laws per se as with the enforcement of the laws. Most laws were not implemented due to financial constraints, lack of effective institutional capacity, internal corruption and inter-agency strife, shortage of technical expertise in the private and public sector, and/or, occasionally, public opposition. Lack of coordination was rampant between (and among) these organizations, and further served to render enforcement, monitoring, and any productive kind of environmental management weak, at best.

[TABULAR DATA FOR TABLE 1 OMITTED]

In certain measures aimed at protecting the environment, the Lebanese authorities have been relatively successful. The Ministry of Environment, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, increased environmental programs throughout the public schools. The Lebanese authorities have also begun an awareness campaign for solid waste management, as part of the solid waste management program for Beirut. In addition, based on anecdotal evidence, the hunting ban, extending from 1995 until 2000, has resulted in greater protection of birds and animals, and has probably saved certain species from local extinction. Of all their efforts at positive reform, the conservation of certain important natural sites was most famous.

MEASURES AIMED AT CONSERVING NATURAL HERITAGE AREAS

Currently, less than 0.5 percent of Lebanon's total area is protected (Dean, 1994). Several laws and decrees were drained and passed that aim to protect certain endangered, or high biologically diverse habitats (Table 2). Ihdin Forest, the most floristically rich area in Lebanon, and Palm Islands, the three islands off the coast of Tripoli that serve as prime areas for migratory birds, were declared protected areas in 1992. It took four years for the enforcement of the protective measures to begin.

Table 2. Biodiversity In-Situ Conservation - Protected Areas Organization Target Year Ministry of Agriculture Fir forest of Qammouaa 1996 Ministry of Karm Shbat 1995 Environment Ministry of Agriculture Reserve of Khurbet Sleem 1992 Ministry of Agriculture Reserve of Kfar Zabad 1992 Ministry of Agriculture Reserve of Hbaleen 1992 Ministry of Agriculture Palm Islands, Ihdin Forest, 1991- Jabal al-Barouk 1992 Ministry of Agriculture Nature Reserve of Saissouk 1991 National Council for Batroun maritime reserve 1991 Scientific Research Ministry of Agriculture Arz Bsharri 1939 Ministry of Agriculture Valley of Qannoubeen 1939 Ministry of Agriculture Reserve, region of Bass in Tyre 1933 In 1996 the Lebanese government signed the UN proposal for Protected Areas for Sustainable Development in Lebanon, thus declaring Ihdin Forest, Barouk Mountain, and Palm Islands to be nationally protected areas. The project was initially funded with US$2.5 million from the United Nations and US$ 578,000 from the Lebanese government; the Lebanese government will also provide annual support of approximately USS 32,000. The project aims to conserve endemic and endangered wildlife and their habitats, incorporate wildlife conservation as an integral part of sustainable human development, and strengthen the institutional capacity of governmental agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). By 1998 the vegetative cover and the sightings of mammals, birds and reptiles in the reserves had increased. Various municipal bodies and NGOs have sought to establish additional protected areas in Lebanon (Abu-Izzedin, 1998). Although the creation of protected areas in Lebanon is a preliminary step toward the protection of Lebanese natural resources and their heritage, comprehensive environmental management confronting the roots of the problems is necessary if Lebanon's health is to be restored. Did the Lebanese authorities' land management and infrastructural development policies comprise a holistic approach to the environment?

LAND MANAGEMENT

Land Use Planning or Land Use Gorging?

While the Lebanese authorities created islands of protection in Lebanon, the increase in unplanned urbanization threatened the remaining fertile and productive lands. The governmental failure in implementing adequate land use planning resulted in loss of prime habitat for agricultural land and forestry. Currently agriculture and annual crops cover over one-fifth of Lebanon. Between 30 and 50 percent of the population is estimated to be involved in agriculture and agriculture-related activities (Abi-Antoun, 1998).

The increased urbanization, encouraged by the high prices offered by developers, has been the most devastating and long-lasting effect on arable land in Lebanon. In agricultural land around major cities, landlords are offered USS 3 million for property they lease to farmers for only USS 4,000 a year (Doueiri, 1996). In the past 20 years alone, urbanization around cities and highways has taken approximately 20,000 hectares (7 percent) of all cultivated land, and a higher proportion (15 percent) of irrigated land (METAP, 1995). A large part of this agricultural land is situated near the bases of urban extensions in the suburbs of Tripoli, Jounie, Beirut, Sidon, Tyre, and Zahle. The loss of land also affected the vegetation used by grazing animals. Half the wild species of fodder plants are endangered due to uncontrolled urban development (Abi-Antoun, 1998).

The loss of fertile land affected agriculture by more than simply transforming potential agricultural land into urban concrete. The loss of habitat encouraged the disappearance of primary predators and consequently resulted in an increased population of field mice and rats. Carefully planned - and enforced - land-zoning systems were desperately needed to allocate primarily non-arable land to urban development needs. In the words of the Ministry of the Environment, "if strict measures are not taken and applied by the authorities, the agricultural sector would be under the threat of disappearance in Lebanon" (MoE, 1991). However, the Ministry of the Environment, itself one of those authorities responsible for urban planning, did not undertake any of these "strict measures."

Forests - Neglecting the Poetry of the Earth

"Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky," wrote Kahlil Gibran. The poetry of the Lebanese earth has been cut down for thousands of years, reducing the once "green Lebanon" to patches of greenery and woodland. Forested areas are estimated at roughly 5 percent of the total land area (approximately 51,000 hectares), down from 7 percent in 1966. Most of the woods are of poor quality, degraded, or offer little economic incentives for management. The main species are oak (56.2 percent), pine (21.5 percent), juniper (17.5 percent), cedar (2.5 percent), beech (1.9 percent), and cypress (0.4 percent). Three tree species are known to be endangered: Cicilian fir (Abies cilica), turkey oak (Quercus cerris), and the true locust bean (Ceratonia silica). Along the western slopes of Mount Lebanon, the oak forests have almost completely disappeared, primarily due to logging and fires. The once dominant fir, juniper, and cedar along the higher elevations of the mountain have been reduced to sparsely distributed stands. On the eastern slopes of Mount Lebanon, and on the Anti-Lebanon mountains, trees are scattered and rare, if present at all. These are fragile ecosystems that are grazed extensively in the spring and fall (Zurayk, 1995a). Human activities, inducing accelerated erosion, further exacerbate these problematic factors.

Of the primary trees, the Italian stone pine (Pinus pinea) accounts for a proportionally significant economic production and constitutes half of the pine composition. The stone pine is localized on the sandy soils of al-Matin and Jizzen, where it has been diminished by war, urban development, and...