MARINE PROTECTED AREAS STRATEGY IN LEBANO FOR BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION

Marine protected areas (MPAs) have gained world recognition as effective tools to protect the marine environment, and are much in favor in the Mediterranean, where about a hundred of them have been declared during recent decades to grant special protection to sites perceived to contain the most valuable marine habitats and species. Embattled by the complexities of saving their sea as a whole, the Mediterranean nations have resolved to carve out their remaining crown jewels from the sea, and struggle to conserve them through MPA designations. In Lebanon, there are two legally declared marine protected areas: the Palm Islands Nature Reserve in North Lebanon and the Tyre Coast Nature Reserve in South Lebanon. By this strategy, the Ministry of Environment in Lebanon can achieve a healthy, productive, and biologically diverse marine environment. To achieve this aim, it is important to enhance the consistency between marine and land-based policies and to create a well-managed, ecologically coherent network of marine protected areas (MPAs) in Lebanese waters. The Strategy sets out how the policy related to the marine environment fits within the Government’s wider policy framework and what can be achieved by creating the network, how the available tools can be used and how collaboration with various organizations must be achieved to create this network. The benefits of a network of marine protected areas are numerous, diverse and include ecological, social, economic and cultural elements. The drive for a National Marine Protected Areas Strategy is derived from the need for a cooperative and collaborative approach to the development of a network of national marine protected areas in Lebanon as a means to help address the declining health of our sea. The intent of this Strategy is to set the national priority actions needed for the establishment of new marine protected areas in Lebanon and for the proper management of existing and new MPAs, and to define the type of interventions needed at technical, research, regulatory, policy, institutional, financial, educational, capacity building, communication and promotion levels. This Strategy defines the following goal: The establishment of a network of marine protected areas, established and managed within an integrated marine management framework, that contributes to the health of Lebanon’s sea and marine environment. To achieve this goal, this Strategy aims to fulfil the following objectives: To establish a more systematic approach to marine protected areas planning and establishment; To enhance collaboration for management and monitoring of marine protected areas; To increase awareness, understanding and participation of the local community in the marine protected areas network; and To link Lebanon’s network of marine protected areas to Mediterranean networks.