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, however, rules and regulations
that quarry operators have to follow. Unfortunately, these
regulations are seldom observed by quarry owners and rarely
enforced by the lackadaisical government.
The law states that all quarries should be located at least 1,000
meters from the sea, rivers and residential areas. The quarrying should
also be limited to a small area and a brief period of time (one month
for example), and the entire quarried area has to be restored once work
has been completed. But, as Lebanon’s oldest environmentalist
Abdallah Zakhya says, “people are
cheating on these laws.” Even though
quarry permits are given for a specific
amount of time, the administrators of
various municipalities have taken the
liberty of renewing permits indefinitely.
In addition, quarrying is being practiced
right in the middle of some residential
areas.
Zakhya recounts the trials of Knet, a
scenic old town in northern Lebanon.
Last year, the European Union (EU)
singled out Knet as the recipient of
international aid and sent a contingent to
plant numerous cedar trees in order to
rehabilitate a damaged forest. Six
months later, when EU representatives
returned to check on the trees, they discovered
that minister of the interior
Michel Murr had authorized a quarry in
the middle of the restored area, thereby destroying all of the work. ‘The
EU representatives packed up their bags and left,” recounts Zakhya.
Murr also authorized the horrific Nahr Ibrahim quarry, which has
completely deforested a once-pristine area. All that remains of the lush
hills is a big gaping hole near a polluted river. ‘The destruction of Nahr
Ibrahim should be construed as treason,” says Zakhya. “Murr is
authorizing the destruction of our collective memory and of our history.”
The quarried stones from Nahr Ibrahim were used to build the
Joseph Khoury Marina in Dbaye, in which Murr has a sizeable stake.
‘The very next day after Israel pulled out of the South,” Al-Hajj relates,
“Murr issued permits to set up quarries in the liberated areas.”
Nabil Ghanem, who previously worked as an advisor at the ministry
of the environment, says that there are 710 quarrying sites in
Lebanon, with 367 quarries in Mount Lebanon alone. Over 90% of
the quarried sites violate
laws. In addition, 300
quarries are located near
splendid archaeological
sites, causing irreparable
damage to monuments that
are thousands of years old
(such as the Mussailha castle
in Chekka). ”If the
quarry operators followed
the Lebanese law, it would
cost them an additional 7 1
cents per m’ quarried.
That’s all,” states Ghanem.
However, Lebanese Jaws
continue to be ignored.
The current minister of
the environment, Arthur
Nazarian, says that the
ministry is too short-staffed and can only send people to check on
quarries when a complaint has been lodged. The ministry of environment
is only responsible for Lebanon’s three protected areas –
the Barouk cedar forest in the Chouf. Palm and rabbit islands off
the coast of Tripoli and Horsh Ehden. “Lebanon’s forests are
under the control of the ministry of agriculture,” says Nazarian. “We
can only hope that all these quarries will be transferred to the eastern
mountains, where are there are no forests and no inhabitants.
Unfortunately, in most cases the damage has been done and the
forests are gone for good.”
Although quarrying is perhaps the greatest danger to Lebanon’s
forests, fires, whether intentional or accidental, are also decimating
the nation’s few remaining trees. “According to the law,” Al-Hajj says,
“You cannot cut a single tree without permission from the ministry
of agriculture. So interested parties often bum an entire forest in order
to quarry an area. Forests are also burned to produce charcoal.”
A further fatal blow was dealt to the nation’s forests by the so called
building boom after the war. A financially strapped government
and chaotic administration issued innumerable building
permits without proper rules and regulations. As a result, the formerly
lush Harissa mountain in Kesrouan now resembles a hastily
built Monte Carlo. The stunning Metn hills above Beirut have
lost their pine cloak and are now bathed in gray cement.
“Lebanon used to be green,” says Ghanem, “but it is becoming
a desert. Uprooting trees and burning forests is the first step
toward desertification.” As the number of trees decreases in a particular
area, so does precipitation. And as Lebanon’s natural topsoil
is removed and used for construction, the thin remaining layer
of earth becomes unable to absorb water. Slowly, the underground
water supply is depleted. The earth dries up, and all that is
left is barren rock. ‘”If the current rate of deforestation continues,”
says Ghanem, “Lebanon will be a desert in 15 years.”
