BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Environment Ministry is seeking to reduce the risk of recurrent forest fires and their severity through an updated national strategy, which was launched on Wednesday.
Nasser Yassin, caretaker minister of environment, said that work was being carried out “under financially, administratively, and politically unfavorable conditions” to reduce the risk of forests and woodlands catching on fire.
Yassin pointed out that the success of the strategy, however, is based on the cooperation of “local people who are proud of their areas, environment, and the health of their sons and daughters.”
The awareness-raising work, he said, has brought “people closer to their environment.”
He referred to “the launch of an emergency fund to support firefighting efforts,” and said: “We are working on developing its law and management methods with the World Bank.”
Yassin added: “There is also a project worth $4.5 million, a gift from the Global Environment Facility, to support the efforts of local communities and regional groups to enhance their readiness and preparedness to reduce the risks of fires and extinguish them.”
Melanie Hauenstein, resident representative of the UN Development Program in Lebanon, said: “Forest fires are not only an environmental concern, but their impact is also noticeable in many other sectors.”
Hauenstein added: “The UN program has equipped dedicated operations rooms in the Lebanese provinces with the necessary tools and supplies to ensure their proper functioning in the event of forest fires and other crises. We have supported the establishment of specially trained first responder teams to deal with forest fires and equipped them with the necessary tools and equipment.”
She said that she, in cooperation with the UK ambassador, the social affairs minister, and the director-general of civil defense, opened a civil defense facility in Jezzine two days ago. This facility, she added, “aims to protect the beautiful pine forests in Jezzine and is the largest of its kind in the Middle East.”
She stressed that protection of the forests “directly benefits 300 Lebanese families who own pine trees, 40 farmers and their families who invest in collecting and processing pine, 120 workers in the pine industry, and 65 civil defense and volunteer personnel.”
Forest fires have not spared any Lebanese region from damage to pine and fruit trees, including the regions of North Lebanon, Mount Lebanon, and South Lebanon.
The environment ministry proposed to the previous parliament the establishment of a strategy to manage the resources resulting from the quarry and crusher sector and a new legislative framework for it, but it was never implemented.
According to the National Council for Scientific Research in Lebanon, approximately 14,460 forest fires have been recorded in the past five years, resulting in the loss of thousands of hectares of forest cover in Lebanon.
Brig. Gen. Raymond Khattar, director-general of the Lebanese Civil Defense, said: “Rapidly changing weather patterns may make conditions favorable for forest and vegetation fires. However, this does not rule out the possibility of further intentional arson, which has been indicated by repeated signs of deliberate ignition, or what has become known as purposeful fires.”
The impact of climate change is not the only thing that has marred Lebanon’s natural beauty.
The directorate of geographical affairs in the army conducted a survey two years ago, covering over 80 percent of quarry and crusher sites operating without permits or with permits obtained through the intervention of powerful forces in Lebanon or as a result of collusion in facilitating and organizing violations.
The survey revealed “huge excesses in terms of depth,” with some excavations reaching a depth of 70 meters, as well as distortions and mountain cutting amounting to hundreds of meters in height.
The affected areas across all Lebanese lands reached approximately 65 million square meters, distributed among 1,356 quarries, crushers, and excavators.
The governorate of Mount Lebanon ranked first in terms of the area and number of quarries and crushers, especially in the districts of Aley, Metn, Jbeil, and Kesrouan, where the affected areas exceeded 15 million square meters.
Lebanon launches strategy to control forest fires
https://arab.news/y5u45
Lebanon launches strategy to control forest fires
- Nasser Yassin, caretaker minister of environment, said that work was being carried out “under financially, administratively, and politically unfavorable conditions”
- Forest fires have not spared any Lebanese region from damage to pine and fruit trees
Gaza's living conditions worsen as strong winds and hypothermia kill 5
- Hundreds of tents and makeshift shelters were blown away or heavily damaged, the UN humanitarian office reported
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Strong winter winds collapsed walls onto flimsy tents for Palestinians displaced by war in Gaza, killing at least four people, hospital authorities said Tuesday.
Dangerous living conditions persist in Gaza after more than two years of devastating Israeli bombardment and aid shortfalls. A ceasefire has been in effect since Oct. 10. But aid groups say that Palestinians broadly lack the shelter necessary to withstand frequent winter storms.
The dead include two women, a girl and a man, according to Shifa Hospital, Gaza City’s largest, which received the bodies.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Tuesday a 1-year-old boy died of hypothermia overnight, while the spokesman for the UN’s children agency said over 100 children and teenagers have been killed by “military means” since the ceasefire began.
Meanwhile, Israel’s military said it exchanged fire Tuesday with six people spotted near its troops deployed in southern Gaza, killing at least two of them in western Rafah.
Family mourns relatives killed by wall collapse
Three members of the same family — 72-year-old Mohamed Hamouda, his 15-year-old granddaughter and his daughter-in-law — were killed when an 8-meter (26-foot) high wall collapsed onto their tent in a coastal area along the Mediterranean shore of Gaza City, Shifa Hospital said. At least five others were injured.
Their relatives on Tuesday began removing the rubble that had buried their loved ones and rebuilding the tent shelters for survivors.
“The world has allowed us to witness death in all its forms,” Bassel Hamouda said after the funeral. “It’s true the bombing may have temporarily stopped, but we have witnessed every conceivable cause of death in the world in the Gaza Strip.”
A second woman was killed when a wall fell on her tent in the western part of the city, Shifa Hospital said.
Hundreds of tents and makeshift shelters were blown away or heavily damaged, the UN humanitarian office reported.
The UN and its humanitarian partners were distributing tents, tarps, blankets and clothes as well as nutrition and hygiene items across Gaza, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The majority of Palestinians live in makeshift tents since their homes were reduced to rubble during the war. When storms strike the territory, Palestinian rescue workers warn people against seeking shelter inside damaged buildings for fears of collapse. Aid groups say not enough shelter materials are entering Gaza during the truce.
In the central town of Zawaida, Associated Press footage showed inundated tents Tuesday morning, with people trying to rebuild their shelters.
Yasmin Shalha, a displaced woman from the northern town of Beit Lahiya, stood against winds that lifted the tarps of tents around her as she stitched hers back together with needle and thread. She said it had fallen on top of her family the night before, as they slept.
“The winds were very, very strong. The tent collapsed over us,” the mother of five told AP. “As you can see, our situation is dire.”
On the shore in southern Gaza, tents were swept into the Mediterranean. Families pulled what was left from the sea, while some built sand barriers to hold back rising water.
“The sea took our mattresses, our tents, our food and everything we owned,” Shaban Abu Ishaq said, as he dragged part of his tent out of the sea in the Muwasi area of Khan Younis.
Mohamed Al-Sawalha, a 72-year-old man from the northern refugee camp of Jabaliya, said the conditions most Palestinians in Gaza endure are barely livable.
“It doesn’t work neither in summer nor in winter,” he said of the tent. “We left behind houses and buildings (with) doors that could be opened and closed. Now we live in a tent. Even sheep don’t live like we do.”
Residents aren’t able to return to their homes in Israeli-controlled areas of the Gaza Strip.
Child death toll in Gaza rises
Gaza’s Health Ministry said the 1-year-old in the central town of Deir Al-Balah was the seventh fatality due to the cold conditions since winter started. Others included a baby just seven days old and a 4-year-old girl, whose deaths were announced Monday.
The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, says more than 440 people were killed by Israeli fire and their bodies brought to hospitals since the ceasefire went into effect. The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.
UNICEF spokesman James Elder said Tuesday at least 100 children under the age of 18 — 60 boys and 40 girls — have been killed since the truce began due to military operations, including drone strikes, airstrikes, tank shelling and use of live ammunition. Those figures, he said, reflect incidents where enough details have been compiled to warrant recording, but the total toll is expected to be higher. He said hundreds of children have been wounded.
While “bombings and shootings have slowed” during the ceasefire, they have not stopped, Elder told reporters at a UN briefing in Geneva by video from Gaza City. “So what the world now calls calm would be considered a crisis anywhere else,” he said.
Gaza’s population of more than 2 million people has been struggling to keep the cold weather and storms at bay while facing shortages of humanitarian aid and a lack of more substantial temporary housing, which is badly needed during the winter months. It’s the third winter since the war between Israel and Hamas started on Oct. 7, 2023, when militants stormed into southern Israel and killed around 1,200 people and abducted 251 others into Gaza.
Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 71,400 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory offensive.
