Daily Star - Italy Links Political Stability With Environment

BEIRUT: Political continuity will help Lebanon’s ability to tackle its rising environmental concerns, according to the country’s Italian Ambassador.
In an exclusive interview with The Daily Star, Gabriele Checchia said that Lebanon was now in an ideal period to prioritize conservation and invest in renewable energy sources.
“We feel that political stability, which we hope will consolidate in Lebanon over the next few years, will help the government structure its priorities in the environmental sector more clearly,” Checchia said.
The ambassador also reiterated Italy’s commitment, through a variety of development projects, to aid natural resource management in Lebanon.
“Environment is one of the key objectives of our development projects in Lebanon,” he said. “We feel that environment belongs to the Lebanese but also the whole Mediterranean region, so it is something we have to protect and nurture.”
Checchia said that the two countries, who share an ancient historical relationship, were well placed to understand mutual environmental concerns, such as water management and maximization of useable land.
He added that Italy’s investment in environmental schemes in Lebanon sought “to protect the people’s link with their environmental roots.”
The Italian Development Cooperation in Lebanon has provided the country with over 40 different projects – at a total cost of more than 130 million euros ($190 million) – to help resource management, renewable energy and water procurement initiatives.
Checchia said that it was important for Lebanese to be able to control and utilize their natural resources in order to preserve Lebanon’s societal and cultural richness.
“There is a very strong social and cultural component in all environmentally related projects,” he added. “In order for the Lebanese people to remain in their territories the land has to be inhabited.
“We have known this problem in Italy. When a region is depopulated it also loses its identity and culture. We want to prevent this. We work to preserve protected areas because they are a treasury at Lebanon’s disposal,” he said.
Italy’s contribution to environmental sustainability in Lebanon – including the construction of waste disposal facilities in the south and the north and irrigation initiatives in the Bekaa Valley and Marjayoun – has been significant in recent years and Checchia believes such commitment will be matched by other international consuls.
“We feel that we are in good company but each country addresses the issue according to its own choices,” he said. “Environment is a common concern.”
In spite of progress during Environment Minister Mohammad Rahhal’s tenure, Jacopo Monzini, the environmental adviser to the Italian Coordination in Lebanon, said that a greater coordinated effort was needed to ensure Lebanon’s sustainability.
“[Environmental action] needs more structure,” he said. “The Ministry has to enforce this. The capacity in Lebanon is highly present, what is missing is coordination.”
The ambassador added that the compulsion for people to act sympathetically to environmental concerns should come from Parliament.
“The role of the Environment [Ministry] is a guide for the other ministries and a guide for the people and we believe it has to be enforced,” he said. “It has to be the government that gives directions for the people to act in a proper way.”
One of Lebanon’s most pressing environmental concerns is the clearance of landmines and cluster bombs from swaths of southern countryside – a carbon heavy operation and one with which Italy is intimately acquainted.
The country provides the largest contingent of troops for the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), whose battalions conduct numerous mine clearance operations.
Checchia also announced that Italy’s UNIFIL soldiers will participate in a project wherein more than half of their waste is recycled at plants in south Lebanon.
“We have been working on projects with our contingent in the south to maximize resources. We know we have limited resources and we need to make the best out of them,” he said.
“They should set the example,” he added, in reference to Italian soldiers in Lebanon.
Checchia also highlighted the importance of all strands of society getting involved with environment initiatives, particularly Lebanese youth.
“Young people, we feel, are more and more concerned with environmental issues. We feel there is momentum and we want to accompany and foster this momentum,” he said.