In 1960, the forest-covered spaces filled 35% of the Lebanese territory and reached 22% in 1972. Nowadays, after a study made by the Ministry of Agriculture and the FAO the surface of the forest fills almost the whole mountainous regions. This surface exceeds 135.000ha, hence more than 13% of the country’s surface.
The absence of green spaces in the coastal regions is not natural. It is caused by the urbanization phenomenon.

Why do we note such deforestation in the mountains?

Deforestation in the mountains is provoked by many anthropogenic factors: the fires in the forest (like the ones we have witnessed this autumn), the quarries, the urbanization, the excessive cuts of wood, and the heavy grazing.

What are the issues of this deforestation?

This deforestation has many environmental and economic consequences. The first one is the economic losses that are generated by the damages in the natural and agricultural resources of the rural zones, which form the main financial resource of the inhabitants in these regions.

Another consequence: the losses in terms of biodiversity, the soils disrepair as well as the increase in air pollution: the same problem exists in the Amazon forest (on a small scale) where deforestation is assimilated to the loss of the planet’s lung. Moreover, in Lebanon, the trees that disappear stop producing dioxygen and do not absorb the carbon dioxide anymore. Not to mention the fires caused by harmful gases like nitrogen monoxide or dioxide.

The disappearance of the trees leads also to the loss of subterranean water: the roots of the trees allow water to be conserved in the soil; without them, water drips on the soil instead of staying in it.

How are you trying to struggle against deforestation?

AFDC has installed different programs to struggle against pollution in the Lebanese forests and improve the life in the Lebanese mountain like: Reforestation and forest fire fighting programs.

For instance: our program entitled “Conservation and Nature” helps local actors to assure equipments and tools to fight forest fires. And thanks to our volunteers, we also organize seminars for local populations to inform them about the necessity of protecting the forests. We have certainly launched communication programs to inform our populations about the cause we are defending: this is the objective of the television campaign we launched this winter. We also have a research and development program to supervise the environment and develop different projects.

Furthermore, we are also trying to install rural development programs because we have to assure the development of the regions in the Lebanese mountains, which happen to be isolated, in order to improve the lives of the inhabitants and hinder the rural exodus.

What are the socioeconomic problems that specifically affect the Lebanese mountainous regions?

The rural exodus is the major problem that affects the Lebanese mountains. This phenomenon is generated by the inhabitants need to gain their life. That’s why they abandon their soils, which are not so profitable anymore, to go find a job in the city.

Other factors force the inhabitants to leave the rural zones, like the lack of services (hospitals, schools, transportation, etc.), or the absence of job opportunities.

What solutions can be proposed for these problems?

The problem of poverty and rural exodus can be solved by the creation of job opportunities for the inhabitants in their own village, and by elaborating rural development projects. Therefore, the inhabitants will be reattached to their soils and will work in them again.

We are trying to help women work in agricultural products (jam production for instance): They have always done it; we have to encourage them to continue. This is what we are doing when we are familiarizing them to the respect of national norms, in order for them to sell off their production on the Souk al Taeb market for example. Who knows? Maybe one day they would be able to export their product!

We are also developing ecotourism and rural tourism concepts along with the development and reconstruction Council. The idea is to make ecotouristic track roads with the crossed municipalities, in order to favor the local economy. The aim here is still to help the inhabitants of the mountains to stay in their villages without needing to move to the city in order to find a job. And always aiming at generating new local job opportunities in the mountainous regions, we are trying to develop the concept of host houses and to favor the fruit-tree plantation projects.