Reforesting in Lebanon: Improving food security seed by seed
A World Food Programme forest management project is boosting livelihoods, preserving Lebanon’s greenery and putting food on the table.
In an outdoor classroom situated at the heart of one of Lebanon’s most picturesque and rich forests, the World Food Programme (WFP) is running a project with the aim of equipping participants who come from different backgrounds with the theoretical and practical skills they need to master forest management techniques.
“If you plant a tree in Ehden, we become forever grateful and this project did way more than that,” says Chady. “It exceeded everyone’s expectations!”
Chady is one of 19 WFP trainees who have collectively planted 9,000 cedar, wild apple and wild pear tree seedlings, as part of the reforestation activities in the Horsh Ehden nature reserve in Lebanon’s Northern governorate. He says he feels fulfilled being able to give back to the village he was born and raised in.
This intervention is supporting vulnerable families and creating an enabling environment for the wider community that benefits from assets over the longer term.
This year, due to pressures wrought by COVID-19, WFP is undertaking the biggest humanitarian response in its history to tackle the rising tide of hunger by ramping up the number of people it assists to up to 138 million from a record 97 million in 2019. In Lebanon, the organization currently supports more than 750,000 people.
Using funds from Germany’s Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), in collaboration with the Lebanon Reforestation Initiative and the nature reserve itself, WFP is upgrading Horsh Ehden’s nursery and seed collection processes, mulching, planting more than 20,500 seedlings and cleaning road edges to prevent forest fires as temperatures begin to rise.
WFP’s livelihood projects equip participants with vital skills that boost their livelihoods. In exchange for their work, participants are supported with an e-card that helps them buy nutritious food.
Designed in collaboration with local authorities, such projects create common ground for people from diverse backgrounds who find themselves grouped together, be they refugees from Syria or Lebanese, breaking social barriers in the process.
“Older participants who have knowledge of agriculture also play a huge role. They pitch their inputs every now and then, introducing us to the techniques they’ve been applying to their own lands,” says Elyse Elias, LRI’s programme manager stressing on the importance of diversity. According to Elyse, seedlings were not the only things that bloomed as participants who were planting together formed friendships after hours and shared coffee and snacks.
One of the participants who expanded his list of friends — both online and on the project site — was Ahmad Sinjer, a father of four from Akkar, who came across a call for participation as he was scrolling through social media. Ahmad, who already runs a small family agri-business, can now extract seeds on his own instead of buying them. “The money I save helps me expand my business.”
Ahmad says his trees are a priceless treasure. Preserving Lebanon’s forests is a goal he is working on so that his children are raised in a healthier and safer environment.
By 2021, WFP aims to reach 3,370 people all over Lebanon through reforestation projects. In the Bekaa, WFP is planting tens of thousands of seedlings in addition to rehabilitating public gardens and clearing forest trails in Hermel, Deir el Ahmar, Baalbeck, Qaroun and Majdal Anjar to name a few.
As for north Lebanon, WFP is planting seedlings, rehabilitating public gardens, and training women on first aid response, firefighting, food safety and growing herbs and flowers in Dunniyeh, Qobayyat, Saysouk, Bqarzala and Ehden.
In the villages of Blida, At Tiri, Aita al Shaab and Qana, in southern Lebanon, WFP is maintaining greenery by cultivating thousands of seedlings, introducing new and unique ones that enrich local biodiversity. WFP is also establishing and rehabilitating three water ponds that support forests and agriculture irrigation.
Not only do forests help stabilize the climate, regulate ecosystems and protect biodiversity, they also support livelihoods and are an asset of the food security landscape. Forests play a vigorous role in supplementing global food, nutrition security and helping us reach a #ZeroHunger world — one of WFP’s core goals.
