Environmental genocide

Green Lebanon, land of lush pine and cedar forests, has the highest rate of deforestation in the world. The Human Development Report published in 2000 by the United Nations Development Program places Lebanon at the head of 163 nations, with a staggering deforestation rate of 8.1 %, between 1990 and I 995. In 1975, over 20% of the land was covered with forests. Today, less than 5% of the land remains forested. During the war, specifically from 1980 to 1990, the total deforestation rate was 0.7%. As such, peace has been much more devastating to Lebanon’s forests than the interminable war. Greenpeace campaigner Zeina Al-Hajj enumerates many reasons, including fires, out-of-control urban development and, most importantly, quarrying. “It’s the most threatening problem for forestation,” Al-Hajj says. Quarrying, which involves the actual carving of a mountain in order to obtain stones and sand for construction, is legal in Lebanon. There are,