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May 2001
Salman's struggle
Reem Haddad reports on an incurable optimist's campaign for a patch of green.
Reem Haddad
New Internationalist
He could easily have turned away like many others. But
not Salman Abbas. Night after night and hour after hour, the 37-year-old
sits at his computer responding to every one of the roughly 60 international
e-mails he receives each day.
‘The Lebanese living abroad must know what is going on,' he tells me with a
determined nod. The e-mails are in support of his cause. To Salman, the ‘cause'
is obvious: Beirut has practically no parks to speak of, so why not turn the
horse-racing track in the midst of a residential area into a public garden?
12/06/2001
Environmental activists are fighting against all the odds
Lana Captan
Daily Star staff
What do Lebanon 's environmental campaigners want for International Environment Day next June? A lot more than they got this year. After week-long celebrations to commemorate International Environment Day and years of campaigning for the promulgation of basic legislation to protect the environment, Lebanon 's environmental activists have come to a conclusion. They don't want to complain anymore. “Do you think we want to spend our lives protesting in front of buildings and being labeled as whining radicals?” says Greenpeace's Lebanon campaigner Zeina Hajj. In the six years that she has been involved with Greenpeace she admits there have been some positive changes even though she contends that politicians still don't care. “To them the environment is about planting a tree as part of an event and nothing more than that,” she says.
08/06/2001
Daher's committee snubs green meeting
Maha Al-Azar
Daily Star staff
Parliament's Administration and Justice Committee on Thursday rebuffed an attempt by MPs to address crucial green issues, failing to turn up at a special session that had been called by the Environment Committee. The Environment Committee had invited the Administration and Justice Committee and other MPs to the meeting to discuss various important environmental issues, in particular the Code of Environment which has been held up in Parliament since 1998. “Out of the 34 MPs called to the meeting only a handful attended,” said a source close to the meeting. “Their absence has provoked condemnation from those present,” said environment committee chairman Aley MP Akram Chehayeb at the end of the meeting. The Code of Environment is a set of laws that deal with environmental conduct in a comprehensive manner and specify penalties in cases of violation.
16/03/2001
MP, Activist See Red over Green Spaces. AUB debate over parks generates more
heat than light
Samar Kanafani
Daily Star staff
Tensions ran high Thursday between environmental activist
Salman Abbas and Beirut MP Ghinwa Jalloul when they debated the question
of how to make the capital a greener place.
Invited by the American University of Beirut 's Student Representative Committee,
Jalloul and Abbas maintained opposing positions during the debate, which focused
on the government's will and ability to increase green areas in Beirut .
Abbas, who is the secretary-general of the environmental NGO Green Line, advocated
transforming every piece of sizable public property remaining in the city into
public parks.
27/03/2001
MP, Activist See Red over Green
Spaces
Outlook
The FAFS-SRC of AUB organized on Thursday March 15, 2001 a debate entitled: “Restoring the Green Beirut, Green Cover or Trees?”. The debate squared off MP Ginwa Jalloul against Green Line representative Mr. Salman Abbas. Dr Jalloul started by exposing the drastic situation of Beirut Green Areas and went on explaining about the government's 600,000 trees project in Beirut . Mr. Abbas addressed the audience about the currently faced problems: “ in Beirut we have 0.8 square meter of green areas per individual compared to the recommended 40 square meters per person”. He also named two locations suitable to be transformed into parks: the 12,000 square meter tract in Verdun and the old race tract near the national Museum. Dr. Jalloul counter-arguments were feasibility and financial burdens to the government.
11 أذار 2001
مركز الأبحاث في أرز الشوف لحماية التنوع البيولوجي وإدارته. إحصاء ثلاثين نوعا" من النباتات الطبّية و " معشبة " للباحثين
المستقبل
اجمع علماء البيئة في لبنان على وجود سبعة أنظمة بيئية رئيسية و تعددها أدى إلى تعدد النباتات و الزهور البرية وبمعنى آخر جعل لبنان غنيا" بالتنوع البيولوجي والأنظمة الايكولوجية وعليه يطرح السؤال حول إمكانية الحفاظ على هذه الثروة وقد نجد الإجابة بأمرين...
14/02/2001
POLEMIQUE- Une menace pour
le retour des habitant chrétiens de Damour, tiraille entre agriculture
et tourisme
L'Orient LE JOUR
Un projet de complexe balnéaire devait être réalisé sur le terrain appartenant à l'Ordre maronite dans la plaine de Damour (Sud de Beyrouth) qui s'étend sur près de 800 mètres de profondeur au pied du village et jusqu'à la plage et qui jouit depuis 1968 d'une double classification: 600 mètres agricole de largeur, et une bande de 150 a 200 mètres un bord de mer est réservée a une exploitation touristique (jamais matérialisée).
14/02/2001
Greens and council tangle over future of racetrack
Controversial decision to extend life of Hippodrome has environmentalists up
in arms
Samar Kanafani
Daily Star staff
A decision to have the Beirut Hippodrome remain a racetrack has angered local environmental groups who want to transform the location into a public garden. The Beirut Municipal Council voted late last month to renew a three-year agreement with the track's managers, the Association for the Protection and Improvement of Arab Horses (SPARCA).
05/02/2001
Quarries determined by ‘politics,' not environment
Maha Al-Azar
Daily Star staff
Quarry licensing is influenced by politics, making it had for regulations to be applied regardless of owners' political connections, environmental and industry experts said over the weekend.
Allegations of political influence over the controversial industry were made by numerous participants at a conference on the industry at the Order of Engineers and Architects headquarters in Jnah on Saturday.
DEVELOPPEMENT- Les problèmes
écologiques s'accumulent et les instances concernees lancent un cri
d'alarme
L'Orient LE JOUR
Quelle protection pour les superbes sites au Liban-Sud?
Des hectares de forets ont été détruis par le feu des combats, le sol et le sable voles, les terres fertiles et les belles plages souillées, les carrières du fait accompli ont défigure plusieurs secteurs du Sud libéré. Mais n'empêche que cette ouverture de cette zone a revelee des étendues inexploitées dans une région généralement défavorisée.