Legislation: The Lebanese coast soon to have its own integrated management: a draft law and strategy in the making

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After years of lack of effective management, Lebanon is in the process of updating both its draft law and strategy on coastal management in conformity with the Protocol on Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) in the Mediterranean (adopted in 2008 and ratified by Lebanon in 2017). Those documents were first developed in Lebanon in 2015 but there was no follow-up afterwards. The current update is done by a group of experts in collaboration with PAP/RAC, a UN Mediterranean agency, and with the Lebanese ministry of Environment (MOE), national ICZM focal point.

The draft strategy and law are the result of a long process, one that started over 20 years ago but was unsuccessful until now, explains Manal Nader, expert in marine biology, director of the Institute of Environment in the University of Balamand and head of this project. Nevertheless, it appears that Lebanese experts have learned from past mistakes and unfinished experiences, and there is hope that the Lebanese coastline will soon benefit from a specific strategy and law.

The coast, “recipient of much of human-generated waste”

Regulating coastal development and use is a must everywhere in the world. “Throughout history, people have lived mostly in coastal areas, and most economic sectors were established near the coastline”, says Manal Nader. Accessibility to water resources, but also trade by sea, more efficient than trade by land and air, have drawn people to the coast, as well as food security, the most important sources of protein in the world being marine biological products.

“We realized that we were destroying these sensitive habitats that constitute the source of such proteins on top of affecting the well-being of coastal communities through pollution, urban sprawl, sea filling (creating new land by filling in submerged areas of the sea), solid waste generation, waste water, and mass tourism amongst many other negative impacts… this is what made the issue of managing coastlines so urgent, because they became the recipients of all human waste” , says Manal Nader.

One other reason for lack of effective management on the coast is the constant conflict between socio-economic sectors: industry aiming at growing at the expense of agriculture, farmers weary of residential areas expansion, residents wanting to expand while at the same time remaining at a distance from industrial, touristic and agriculture areas…

These conflicts shaped the idea of coastal management, that started with scientists, notes Manal Nader, and was mainly focused on environmental conservation and protection of ecosystems. “But as we moved along, we learned that conservation is but one component of the coastal management. There are many sectors thriving around Mediterranean coastlines such as tourism, urbanization expansion, industry, agriculture, trade… all located in this narrow strip in Lebanon. With time, the idea of coastal management shifted from a pure conservation approach to the management of development across sectors.”

He adds: “Making this shift from conservation to development doesn’t mean environmental protection is not important, it remains the cornerstone of what we do. But we will need to merge it with the well-being of societies and coastal communities.”

A long road ahead

To face the challenges resulting from such intensity in economic and touristic activities, the Mediterranean has been a pioneer in managing basins and solving problems between the 23 countries around this semi-closed sea. In Lebanon, the process towards coastal management through a strategy and a law has been long and fraught with obstacles. According to Manal Nader, it started in the early 2000s. Coastal knowledge at the time was much more limited, and the political situation still very unstable after a 15-year war that ended in 1990. A first attempts at a law and a strategy were lacking a shared vision encompassing different sectors.

The second attempt was in 2014-2015. “There was a project called Promare funded by the European Union, our Institute of the Environment at Balamand was subcontracted by the Ministry of Environment to develop a draft law and strategy, based on the information gathered in the 2000s”, he says. The new approach was a management approach.

This work in 2015 didn’t lead to the passing of a new law, but was a significant step forward nevertheless. “The hurdles met when advocating for new laws meant that any draft text had to be sent to many ministries for comments, then it had to be discussed by the government… in 2015, a review by one ministry stated that the existing legislations were enough to protect the coastline, while other ministries did not even make the effort to respond”, he explains. “On the other hand, every time a new government was appointed, we had to go through the process all over again.”

The current project that is updating the strategy and the law, under the auspices of the ICZM protocol, and with a number of experts in all related fields and in full collaboration with the MOE, is promising due to all the accumulated knowledge and the shift in understanding the importance of coastal management. “The idea at the core of ICZM is that all sectors have to compromise for the common interest”, says Manal Nader.

“The updated draft law reflects the objectives present in article 5 of the ICZM protocol of 2008 ”, explains Josyane Yazbeck, expert in environmental law and involved in the draft law and strategy writing. “The law mentions, in its objectives, that the coastal zone is an integral part of Lebanon’s common heritage, as well as the protection of the coastal zone, with the objective to ensure the preservation of natural sites and guarantee the safeguarding of marine biodiversity and water resources”, she says.

New issues will take into account the different scenarios related to climate change and the carrying capacity of the Lebanese coast, adds the expert in environmental law.

Open beaches from South to North…

In the process of preparing these new drafts, the expert team also accumulated a more profound and global knowledge of Lebanese legislation pertaining to coastal management, which, in many cases, overlap to the detriment of coastal ecosystem health. “The adoption of a new law means that some of the existing legislation that might be in contradiction with the new measures should be annulled”, says Josyane Yazbeck. On the other hand, some activities are not regulated at all currently on the Lebanese coast, such as some recreational activities, industries and power plants. “There will be penalties and fines, taking into consideration the ones already present in other laws such as the decree on environmental impact assessment (EIA) and strategic impact assessment (SEA) for example”, she adds.

At this stage, experts are in the process of writing the articles of the new law and developing the new strategy that will be further discussed through participatory approaches with all concerned stakeholders, in targeted workshops and meetings.

After the work on the draft law and strategy is over, the battle won’t be won yet. “All concerned will then have to advocate for it with the decision makers, and convince them that it is beneficial for the country and for the economic well-being of coastal communities in particular and the Lebanese population in general, as well as being crucial for sustaining coastal tourism and resources for generations to come”, says Manal Nader.

One of the main reforms would be to acknowledge that the maritime public domain belongs to the whole Lebanese population and is not to be privatized, that encroachments (unauthorized or illegal occupation or use of the maritime public domain such as blocking access to the shore, seafilling, privatization activities etc…) should be penalized and that, according to applicable laws, a Lebanese citizen should be able to walk from South to North on the shore without any impediment. A dream soon to come true?