Environmental Protection in Lebanon: Myth or Reality?
Rootless beings, transient humans … living an ephemeral life in eternally bleeding lands!
More than twenty years of efforts invested to protect the environment in Lebanon has led to more disparities and/or redundancies in terms of activities achieved and plans and strategies executed. Many public, private and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have led environmental protection and biodiversity conservation projects, but despite these noble efforts, we are still trapped in a vicious circle, exacerbating environmental degradation and resource depletion. Where do we stand today after having ratified numerous international environmental conventions, and despite many obstacles, put in motion activities managed by international and domestic agencies, and acquired aid to manage our natural heritage?
Environmental resources, which are defined as public property under the Lebanese Constitution, including air, water, coastline, green cover and biodiversity, have been privatized. This rogue wave of privatization has even expanded to include cultural landscapes, human heritage and historical vestiges. On the other spectrum, we lobby fervently and create inspiring slogans to raise funds and gain technical and managerial
support for various causes, but in the end, we are self-centered, and while we succeed in reaching our goals, we tend to forget the fundamental value of nature!
Why? Are we on the right path when the values of our ecological footprints reflect a utilitarian culture vis-à-vis nature and humans alike? Do we have it in us to one day start caring for the intrinsic and existence values of both the human and non-human components of our world? Is this scenario possible in a country where even an individual’s identity has been privatized? Humans tend to succumb to all aspects of subordination.
They do not have a value unless they belong to a party, religious community or institution. How do we give birth to independent thinkers and responsible citizens, aiming at universal solidarity and social justice? How do we achieve this end when stereotyping takes over authentic social identities, when citizens are taken for granted and when their
belongings are privatized? Is the importance of environmental protection a reality in this country? Or do we believe a myth that keeps societies, communities and even individual initiatives trapped in an illusion that fuels their existence and inflates their egos!?
Should we reconsider new social dynamics to better protect the environment, help ventures focused on biodiversity protection succeed, encourage reforestation, restore effective nature reserves management, promote eco-tourism and incorporate sustainability measure that take into account the land, basic human value and the interconnectedness that exist in nature and in societies? Is it such a big challenge? It could be a dream, which could come true if human evolution is led by the rediscovery of true intrinsic values, acting independently of external forms, labels, trademarks, political figures, and so on; thereby, enabling it to create a new social dynamic governed by the awareness of the true values of the human and non-human worlds.
Article Written 2011. Published in World Environment Magazine, Issue 11, 2013. Page 142.
Reconnecting - to make changes 