By Rakan al-Fakih
HERMEL, Lebanon: With the beginning of winter, residents of
villages and towns in northern Bekaa, many of whom are unable to afford fuel,
are turning to wood from the area’s forests. While burning firewood is the only
option for many to stay warm, the practice is driving deforestation and
striking a blow to local conservation efforts.
With over 35 percent of the region’s families living below the
poverty line, many residents don’t have the financial resources to buy fuel,
especially as each family needs an average of 10 barrels, or 200 liters, of
heating oil during the winter season, at a cost of around LL1 million a month,
double the minimum wage.
As a result, residents are chopping down trees in the forests
around the city of Hermel and the area’s villages, which already register the
highest percentage of desertification in Lebanon.
Ali Hajj Hussein, a firewood dealer, said that selling firewood
has become his permanent profession in the last three years as the majority of
the area’s residents, regardless of their economic status, have begun using
firewood for heating.
He blamed the switch on the significant rise in the cost of
fossil fuels, especially diesel.
According to Hajj Hussein, “the poorest of the poor” secure
their need by gathering fallen branches in orchards and fields and at the edges
of the area’s forests or by buying them from the owners of the fields for
LL150,000 to LL200,000 a ton.
Some residents also use motor oil residue, which burns for
longer periods than diesel, despite the danger it poses to their health.
Others use olive pits by squeezing them into the form of small
pieces of wood and drying them. The demand for this kind of fuel has increased
as it is easy to use and burns for a long time. It is sold for LL250,000 and
LL350,000 a ton and is available in large quantities due to vast olive orchards
in the area.
More affluent residents are able to afford quality firewood,
such as oak or fir, which is cut into pieces ranging between 20 and 25
centimeters in length for a regular heater and 50 centimeters for a fireplace
and sold for LL450,000 a ton, according to Hajj Hussein.
But such activity is threatening the cedar, fir and cypress
forests in the mountains of Hermel, Akkar and Dinnieh and, according to
environmental activists, several ecotourism projects are now also under threat
due to wanton cutting.
Salem Hmeidan, an environmental activist with a local youth
organization, said that economic deprivation was driving deforestation in the
area.
According to Hmeidan, poor conditions in the agriculture sector,
which constitutes the main source of income for Hermel’s residents, as well as
the government’s decision to destroy all illegal marijuana plantations in the
region’s mountains without providing a substitute alternative crop, is
prompting residents to chop down trees and sell their wood for heating or
transform it into charcoal.
In addition to logging, Hmeidan said that mining activities in
the mountains are also a threat to the forests.
Hussein Allaw, the owner of ecotourism resort Al-Jord and an
environmental activist, emphasized the need to establish a comprehensive
development plan to allow residents, especially farmers, to secure basic
necessities.
He called on local authorities to provide residents of valleys
and mountains with fuel they can use for heating instead of firewood and
emphasized the municipality’s crucial role in preserving the region’s forests.
Allaw suggested that the municipality oblige anyone with a
building license to plant a group of trees in the mountains, in an effort to
reforest the area.
For his part, Mofleh Allaw, a municipal council member in Hermel
and the head of the municipality’s environmental committee, argued that
deforestation in the area has reached a very dangerous level due to lack of
initiative from the government – but it’s an issue that dates back to the
country’s independence.
He suggested reforestation take place in the plains and
mountains of the Hermel region, as it would only involve planting tree
seedlings which could grow on their own with the help of the area’s soil and
high rainfall levels.
He also
called for transforming the region into a large natural reserve with wide-open
spaces for ecotourism activities to provide a source of income for residents
and for increasing cooperation between the municipality and organizations that
care for the environment.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2011/Nov-26/155256-poverty-drives-deforestation-in-northern-bekaa-valley.ashx#axzz1eXgY1TwC
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