Evaluating the Management of Biosphere Reserves in Lebanon: The Shouf Biosphere Reserve (SBR) as Case Study

Abstract

Economic development in Lebanon has prioritized urbanization and shifted national priorities away from environmental and biodiversity protection, jeopardizing wildlife and increasing pollution, alongside the exacerbation of an unsustainable exploitation of natural resource. Land commodification and uncontrolled building development in towns and villages, particularly around touristic sites in rural areas have consumed and distorted large natural landscapes. Moreover, overexploitation, unregulated quarrying, forest fires, expansion of agro-pastoral activities remain entirely uncontrolled and further depletes resources, consecrating the exchange value of land over its ecological, cultural, and social values. Amidst these harmful environmental policies and practices, the Ministry of Environment managed to legislate the implementation of natural reserves and to implement some biodiversity conservation practices. This thesis will take the Shouf Biosphere Reserve (SBR) as its case and investigate its making, its linkages to sectarian leaders’ vested interests, and focuses on the governance structure of the reserve. Based on a thorough review of management evaluation frameworks, coupled with the review of theories of (spatial) planning practice, I propose an evaluation framework combining both management and planning components to assess Biosphere Reserves. I use this framework, in addition to semi-structured qualitative interviews with landscape ecology experts and resource persons, and participant observation to assess the Shouf Biosphere Reserve’s modalities of governance, management, and planning. This assessment identifies key priority areas for policy intervention that can inform decision-makers engaged in the management of BRs in Shouf, Lebanon and beyond.