Zein: Defining Nature Reserve Maps Corrects Administrative Flaw and Effectively Increases Protected Area

Environment Minister Tamara Zein affirmed that withdrawing the file on draft decrees defining natural reserve maps from the Cabinet agenda was solely to complete research and scrutiny, and to remove ambiguities raised about it, rather than a retreat from its principles or from the Ministry's responsibility to correct a legal and administrative flaw existing for years. She stressed that protecting reserves is not achieved through slogans and bidding wars, but through law, science, and actual work on the ground.

Zein explained in a statement addressing the issues raised around the file that laws establishing several reserves, particularly those issued before 2014, defined their general geographical scopes without attaching detailed cadastral maps. This created confusion between circulating geographical areas and lands actually covered by legal protection, leading to difficulties in managing, monitoring, organizing, and protecting the reserves.

She noted that some of the circulated areas rely on maps from the Comprehensive Plan for Land Use in Lebanon issued in 2009, which included within their geographical scopes private properties not originally covered by reserve establishment laws or town commons not mentioned in the law. This led in some cases to disputes lasting decades, thereby undermining the ability of reserve committees to manage them effectively. Hence, the draft decrees were prepared in response to the request of the reserve committees and in consultation with them, based on their establishment laws and official cadastral documents, aiming to precisely define legally protected lands.

She emphasized that differences between old and proposed areas in some cases do not automatically mean cutting off protected land, as scientific and legal comparison requires distinguishing between general geographical area, property ownership, and the legal status of the land. She confirmed that the draft decrees do not amend the laws establishing the reserves but rather entrench them; they do not drop protection from any legally covered land, but aim to fix their boundaries, facilitate their management and protection, and open the way for their expansion within legal frameworks.

She clarified that excluding private properties not covered by reserve establishment laws does not mean negating their environmental value or lack of deserving protection. The Protected Areas Law No. 130 of 2019 clearly provides mechanisms for establishing reserves on private property and expanding the scope of protection according to legal procedures. Hence, we extend a direct invitation to anyone wishing to proceed with establishing a reserve on their private property to submit their file to the Ministry of Environment so that it can be technically supported and implemented according to legal conditions.

Zein affirmed that protecting reserves is not measured by areas drawn on paper, but by our ability to preserve their forests, natural habitats, and biodiversity, prevent encroachments upon them, and secure the elements of their management and sustainability.

She responded to campaigns of doubt and displays on social media, "for every purpose or goal," expressing regret at turning a reform path demanded by the reserve committees themselves into material for accusations and bidding wars. She questioned the absence of "caring" voices today when the Ministry worked to secure financial contributions for reserves and include them in their budget after an absence of more than ten years, prepare guidelines and management plans for several of them, work on approving the decree for small reserves, currently work on the Lebanese Reserves Guide, and proceed with launching the first natural park in Lebanon, and expand the network of protected areas to fulfill Lebanon's commitment to protect 30 percent of its terrestrial and marine areas by 2030. She pointed out that

it is useful to reveal facts as they are, noting that according to the draft decrees, the total area of the eleven reserves increased by more than 2,000 hectares, refuting all campaigns of forgery and misinformation.

She said: We wished to see this "widespread care" when reserves needed funding, management plans, and actual protection, rather than suddenly floating up when a technical and legal file is turned into material for political debate or showy competition, as if the electoral bazaar has started early for some.

Zein paused at the attempt to involve southern reserves in campaigns of doubt, considering that those who wanted to defend them would have been better advised to support the Ministry when it raised its voice against Israeli attacks targeting them, and against environmental genocide and the burning of more than 16,000 hectares of agricultural and forested land in the south, and the damage these attacks caused to soil, vegetation cover, and biodiversity.

She reaffirmed that the decision to withdraw the file aims to allow further scrutiny and discussion with relevant parties, and that the Ministry's doors are open and never closed to experts, lawyers, and environmental bodies to review data and maps and discuss them scientifically and legally. She stressed that the Ministry will not abandon its responsibility to enhance and expand protection.

She also lamented that correcting a flaw existing for years becomes an occasion for fabricating suspicions and distributing accusations, and that noise becomes a substitute for knowledge, and populism a substitute for work. As for those accustomed to deals seeing every reform step as a suspicious deal, we say: bring forward your evidence instead of resorting to confusing citizens' minds and drowning them in bad intentions.

She stressed that reserves are a national wealth and not the property of a ministry, a deputy, a candidate, or an association, and their protection is a responsibility that does not tolerate display. Those who want to defend them should start by reading their laws and tell the Lebanese what they have actually contributed to preserving them. As for those who use reserves as a platform for bidding wars, we remind them that Lebanon needs to expand its natural reserves, not expand political reserves whose owners hide behind slogans and misinformation.

She concluded: A natural reserve is measured by the life and biodiversity it preserves, while a populist reserve preserves nothing but its owners' inability to deliver real achievements. Nature needs those who protect it, not those who trade in its name according to the rule that commerce is the fastest way to profit.