The Power of the Union to Achieve Conservation Demonstrated during War on Lebanon

IUCN WESCANA Regional Office facilitates cooperation between members and helps save wetland

11 October 2006

For a short while, conservationists at the Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon (SPNL) were overcome by shock and were undecided about what to do. Their reaction was not different from other Lebanese, who were carrying on their work and life normally, to a war that took them by surprise, a war they thought would never return to destroy years of hard work.  

But after ten days of debating, they decided to launch the “Hope Campaign” to relieve pressure on natural resources, a common outcome of war and disasters as people get displaced from their homes.

Before the events of July, SPNL were working on reintroducing a traditional system of conservation called Hima, which was followed in West Asia on communal lands for over 1500 years to protect water and vegetation in times of environmental hardship. It is a bottom up approach to conservation management that starts with and relies on local communities.

During the war, the first Hima they had reintroduced, known as Hima Ebel es Saqi a bottleneck neck area for migrating birds came under direct fire as it is located where battles were most concentrated in south Lebanon. SPNL could not intervene there as it is too risky and most of the people of the village had already fled to escape death.

The second Hima, Kfar Zabad, is a wetland in the Bekaa used by migrating water birds, was not subjected to continuous fire like Ebel es Saqi but it was transformed into a refuge for displaced families coming from the south, Beirut suburbs and Baalbek.

The people originally living in Kfar Zabad are a poor farmer community. The war caused them additional stress beside the load of the displaced arrival.
“At least 100 farmers were affected,” said Asaad Serhal SPNL Director General. “They couldn’t move to harvest and load crops, any pick-up truck spotted moving by Israeli planes was immediately targeted based on the assumption that it would be transporting weapons.” Serhal added that one truck was bombed a few meters away from the wetland.

In fact, after the first ten days of war, SPNL arrived to a horrid scene at Kfar Zabad. The farmers attempting to save their crops pumped almost half of the wetland’s water and directed it to their lands. They found refuse covering the Hima area as it was heavily being used by the displaced. “You can imagine this happening when 120 families land in an already poor area,” Serhal said.

Moreover, 2,000 people found themselves without jobs after the dairy, container and glass factories of the Bekaa were bombed; among those many were from Kfar Zabad.

But SPNL’s Hope Campaign changed the situation as it brought relief and hope to human and natural resources at the devastated village during the crisis and beyond.

With seed money raised by its partner BirdLife International, SPNL launched the construction of soft tourism infrastructure to serve two purposes simultaneously: create jobs and cash flow as well as host the displaced in a decent manner.
“This for us serves the immediate term by helping the people and the long run as this infrastructure would remain part of the eco-tourism pillars for the Hima,” Serhal said.

In turn, when IUCN WESCANA Regional Office learned of SPNL’s Hope Campaign, it disseminated the information among all its members to mobilize assistance. Jordan River Foundation (JRF), in a move led by its Director General Maha Khatib, was among the first to respond with a shipment of 30 tons of baby food, milk and other food items that reached Kfar Zabad rather promptly despite road cut-offs and continuous bombing. “The arrival of the shipment created marvels,” Serhal said. “the community felt that we were there for them and they became very cooperative and started to pay more heed to our conservation concerns.”

Basically all pumping of water from the water stopped, attitudes and moods changed. Anger turned to cooperation. People developed an attitude similar to “tell us how we can help you protect nature.” The food that arrived helped relieve the stress of having “to do something” to secure bread on the table.

Serhal said that the site support group, the people representing SPNL locally, reached out to farmers in their homes and distributed the food fairly and equitably, which established profound and long-lasting ties between conservationists and the village community.“Sustainability is people, if they are with you then it’s ok, if not, then forget it,” Serhal said. JRF sent a second 30 ton shipment that provided a boost for another month and post-war support.

Serhal said that this experience showed that community-based protected areas are more resilient in times of war and crisis situations. Other Protected areas in Lebanon like Palm Islands and Al-Shouf Cedar Nature, which are mandated by central government have come under the threat of collapse as a result of the war. Revenues of tourism vanished and decision making broke off. “In times of war governments are paralyzed whereas people on the ground keep mobile and active,” Serhal said. “This is why conservation management should be decentralized in countries like ours.”

This has rendered Serhal more determined to extend the Hima System. His vision is to link protected areas along a corridor starting in Kfar Zabad and expanding to Al- Shouf Cedar Reserve. He even hopes to expand the Hima on a regional level.
“From now on we want to focus our work in safe areas concentrated mostly in the Bekaa region to link Kfar Zabad to the Qaraoun lake, Ammiq wetlands and Shouf Cedar Reserve,” Serhal said. “These would not only guarantee ecological continuity but also safe human corridors.”

For more information please contact Hala Kilani, Communication Officer hala.kilani@iucn.org