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27.9%ANMag Issue 27 Global Awareness
Restoration and Conservation of Sensitive Forest Areas in Lebanon Project
By Ennio Merlini, WWF (Speech)
Beirut, Lebanon, April 04, 2008 – "Forests are among the major issues in nature conservation and human well being in the Mediterranean region. It is broadly accepted that serious steps towards a sustainable use of them, proper management and suitable protection policies should be done by all the countries in the Mediterranean area. Although relevant differences exist from country to country in climate, water availability, land use and forest coverage and enforcement of laws; a common concern about the state of the forests is actually existing and partnerships among countries are already implemented to share the best practices and to develop a common strategy.
On the other hand one is immediately aware, when dealing with forests, that the scope is enlarging by itself touching relevant issues as water management, economical and social development -and even more poverty reduction-, climate changes and desertification processes, migration and urbanization. All of those open windows on the most relevant problems the whole human community is facing, such as social conflicts and wars, political instability, health, food security and water scarcity.
Is it therefore possible to solve all the world’s problems by addressing all the efforts towards forests’ conservation? Of course not, but problems are unlike to be solved without paying the deserved attention to forests, and in general to nature and ecological systems, and to include their management (and protection) in development strategies implemented by the different players at the local, national, regional and international level.
When reading the state of Lebanon’s forests 2007 I could easily find out that even here the major threats for forest are human activities and behaviours: of course, this is the basic finding everywhere in the world and it doesn’t sound strange if considering that human communities have always interacted with natural resources for their livelihood. It is worth considering, given this easy conclusion, that human activities and behaviour should become the most effectives allies for forests and nature conservation.
When dealing with Nature Conservation in overpopulated regions as the Mediterranean one is, the main challenge is to find solutions capable to respond to different needs and to harmonize protection with development.
Forest landscape restoration brings people together to identify, negotiate and implement practices that restore an optimal balance among the ecological, social, cultural and economic benefits of forests and trees, within the broader pattern of land uses. It involves practical approaches that do not try to re-establish the pristine forests of the past. Rather, the goal is to adopt holistic approaches that restore the functions of forests and trees and enhance their contribution to sustainable livelihoods and land uses.
Major efforts in this direction should be addressed to the assessment of the economic value of a forests and the surrounding areas, also accounting financial systems to give credit to those who manage and protect a natural resource, or, better an ecological system, in order to allow it to produce its benefits and to provide its services to the whole community. Several possibilities for a non destructive use of the forests are available, from the collection, processing and commercialisation of non timber products, to the development of eco-tourism activities. Also the most common rural activities, such as agriculture and grazing, when implemented with sustainable approaches, could be helpful for a correct management of a forest area.
At the same time there should be identified means for the protection of the forests, which can only pass thru a law enforcement, the definition of clear rules for their use, the establishment of protected areas, and the construction of the capacity to monitor, manage and intervene towards any possible threat. Let me say that several outcomes of the restoration and conservation of sensitive forest areas in Lebanon project go in this direction and that the state of Lebanon’s forests should be considered the main achievement, since it fills an existing gap and provide a necessary tool to know and to manage the forests.
Great efforts should also be addressed to the implementation of restoration and afforestation/reforestation programs, which should be carefully planned, in order to pursuit effective results in terms of restoration of a continuous pattern in forest coverage, enhancement of the economic value of the forest and consistency with the local conditions. By planting indigenous plants with high economic value after a careful assessment of the local state of the forests and thru the adoption of a methodology that doesn’t require irrigation, the project has shown a possible approach to maximize the effects of a restoration project.
All that it’s mentioned above is clearly described in the report, it is nonetheless worth noting how a similar strategy should rely on the commitment of different levels’ stakeholders at national and international level and therefore the issue of partnership becomes more and more relevant.
It’s my opinion that the first and immediate outcome of a good partnership is learning, and I learnt a lot with this experience. This consideration makes me reflect upon the importance of having learning opportunities, as this meeting and the report are, when implementing a project and a partnership. Somehow one can be indeed persuaded that the most, or even all, of the efforts of a project should be addressed to field activities. This might be true, but can we really avoid to stop and think about what we’re doing? Shouldn’t we deepen our knowledge of the problems while we’re addressing to them? I believe indeed that learning is one of the major responsibility when implementing a project which is supposed to be able to share with all the concerned players its outputs and to mainstream its best practices.
It is commonly believed that when a project is studied, implemented or evaluated, a special attention should be also paid to the identification of all the concerned players and stakeholders and great efforts should be addressed to involve them in the process, well I believe that today we’re having the opportunity to reflect upon what could mean the word partnership and what role an effective partnership could play when similar issues are addressed.
The long term partnership established between WWF and AFDC is for instance a sample of how much one could learn by sharing experiences and visions with others.
The strong partnerships established by AFDC with Governmental and local institutions in Lebanon is a sample of how much one could impact a problem when collaborating with the proper concerned bodies.
The active participation of the communities in the forest management is a sample of the major role played by each single person when grouped for a shared objective.
The role played by multilateral institutions, such as IUCN and UNDP, in forest conservation activities in Lebanon, shows how close to the field these institutions could be once properly integrated in a strategy.
And finally I would like to stress the partnership established on 2006 with the Italian Cooperation and the ROSS program. I don’t want to thank the Italian Cooperation only for the financial support given to the restoration and conservation of sensitive forest areas in Lebanon project (half a million Euros), but for the support given in understanding, planning and implementing the project.
When we started to discuss the project idea with the ROSS program, although we were convinced that our was an emergency and rehabilitation project addressing one of the major problems faced by the population in South Lebanon in the aftermath of the 2006 war, I was personally afraid that our environmental approach and speech could have hinder a clear communication and understanding when dealing with a Development Cooperation Agency.
I was wrong: not only the ROSS staff paid attention to what we had to say, but they become our major partner in developing the idea and to make the project the most effective. This dialogue, of course has strengthen during the implementation of the project and out of any doubt, we should thank them for the technical and administrative assistance they provide us which alone has been one of the key drivers for the success of the project. And more, I’m confident that our partnership will be even stronger in the future.
What has been learned until now about effective partnerships, is that they should be trans-national, in order to ensure a wider scope for the strategy, more coherence in the implementation of field actions and policies and, of course, more opportunities to share lessons learned and best practices; and that they should be trans-institutional, in order to involve the higher number of stakeholders and to ensure coherence in the action of everyone of them, each one still acting for its purposes, mandates and capacities.
This actually describes WWF approaches, both the geographical and the institutional ones. On one side, en effect, WWF address its activities’ planning and implementation to ecoregions, which are wider than single states and are delimited on the basis of biological observation rather than administrative boundaries.
Biodiversity is not spread evenly across the Earth but follows complex patterns determined by climate, geology and the evolutionary history of the planet. These patterns are called "ecoregions".
WWF defines an ecoregion as a "large unit of land or water containing a geographically distinct assemblage of species, natural communities, and environmental conditions".
The boundaries of an ecoregion are not fixed and sharp, but rather encompass an area within which important ecological and evolutionary processes most strongly interact.
The Global ecoregions recognize the fact that, whilst tropical forests and coral reefs harbour the most biodiversity and are the traditional targets of conservation organizations, unique manifestations of nature are found in temperate and boreal regions, in deserts and mountain chains, which occur nowhere else on Earth and which risk being lost forever if they are not conserved.
This is specially true for the Mediterranean ecoregion which is unique for its richness in biological diversity.
On the other side trans-national and trans-institutional partnerships are consistent with WWF strategy towards poverty alleviation, which is based on the recognition that poverty is directly linked to environment, because in many rural areas poor communities must depend on natural resources for their survival.
WWF Macroeconomics Program Office coped with the underlying meaning of this assumption, namely the fact that the most affected persons are the weakest ones in the global market. By reviewing WWF and other non governmental, governmental and multilateral players’ experience in the field and observing how frequently successful poverty-environment initiatives at the local level are wiped out by powerful interests groups and economic changes, we convinced ourselves that reversing environmental degradation and reducing poverty in the developing world requires working simultaneously across local, sub-national and national levels.
We have called this approach the 3xM Approach because it links changes across the micro (local), meso (sub-national) and macro (national/international) levels of a given country. Its overarching purpose is to remove political, economic and institutional obstacles so that the rural poor can compete more effectively in the emerging economic order and strengthen management of natural resources and ecosystems.
We have experienced (and learned) with this project a good practice to address different stakeholders, based on the recognition of each one’s specificity, and aimed not only at to ensure the participation of them, but their commitment, which can be obtained only when recognizing that stakeholders bear particular (and sometimes contrasting) interests in natural resources that need to be accommodated and emphasized towards a common goal that merges stakeholders’ aspirations and interests with technical experts’ recommendations and policy guidelines through a continued two-way (bottom-up and top-down) negotiation process.
This approach lead AFDC and WWF to relevant achievements in this project, specially with regards to the increased capacity to prevent and to fight forest fires at the local and the national level. A similar approach appears to be extremely consistent with the one of the conclusions of FAO’s state of the world’s forests 2007, that natural resources management requires a shift from participatory to collaborative approach
Lebanon is out of any doubt aware that only the international collaboration could make serious progresses towards a sustainable use of the world’s natural resources and the conservation of the biological diversity which is, once lost, non replaceable. That is the reason why the country is part of the Global Partnership for Forest Landscape Restoration, a worldwide network of more than 25 governments and organizations working to strengthen forest landscape restoration efforts globally, and has ratified all the most relevant international convention related with Nature Conservation.
The Lebanese Govern has also repeatedly shown a great interest in developing a national system to protect the natural heritage of the country, although it had to face very hard problems during the wars which had reduced its capacity to concentrate on the issue. We all believe that this and other projects will represent a boost opportunity to continue this work."