Ecologia Mediterranea

Introduction
The structural complexity of Mediterranean
forests, resulting from anthropogenic factors
and past management practices, has rendered
the development of conservation strategy a
critical task, especially since these plant communities
are remnants of old vegetation. The
management of Mediterranean forests has
become a key component of many national
and regional conservation strategies.
Although the majority of programs followed in
managing and sustaining the biodiversity of
forests have focused on establishing protected
areas, these alone are insufficient to adequately
conserve species or ecosystems (Lindenmayer
et al. 2006), seeing that the majority of biodiversity
remains outside protected areas. The
establishment of strict nature reserves, nevertheless,
has played a fundamental role in the
majority of global and regional strategies to
mitigate the ongoing loss of natural resources
and biodiversity. The growing recognition that
the dedication of strict reserves cannot solely
achieve conservation objectives, however,
means that these reserves are today often perceived
as forming the core of a broader network
of protected sites. This network includes
a range of measures, including multiple-use
management zones, conservation incentives,
and controls on private land (Ferrier 2002).
Conversely, in the early stages, biodiversity
protection and management approaches
adopted strict conservation principles. A “cosmovision”
approach (Rios Osorio et al. 2005)
to sustainability through a decades-old evolutionary
progression has replaced these principles.
The approach takes into account the
involvement of communities in environmental
protection and management as well as the concept
of cultural landscapes given that human
beings are classified as regular members and
citizens of natural ecosystems. This model is a
crucial one since the significance of the longterm
interaction between humans and nature in
Western and Eastern Mediterranean cannot be
ignored; the human-nature relationship has
shaped land use and management plans, and
created spaces in which the built and natural
environment interact. The establishment of
national parks, incorporating various land conservation
values, land use, and management
types, therefore, could play a significant role
in conserving biodiversity and protecting the
social dynamics and cultural identities of
indigenous communities.
ecologia mediterranea – Vol. 38 (2) – 2012
Towards the establishment of a natural park in Eastern Mediterranean forests in Mount Makmel:
Botanical assessment and communities participation practices
Given its unique location at the crossroads
between Europe, Asia, and Africa, most scholars
consider the Mediterranean Basin as the
cradle of many civilizations, which supported
intensive anthropogenic activities. These activities
have left an imprint on the biological and
physical environment, including species richness,
plant communities, terracing and landscape,
and forest structure and composition (Di
Pasquale et al. 2004; Blondel & Aronson 2005;
Blondel et al. 2010). The region has been
shown to be a melting pot for species of various
origins, and a critical habitat of global
importance for genetic resources (Zohary
1973; Quézel 1985; Heywood 1995; Myers
2000; Blondel & Aronson 2005). It is recognized
for its remarkable speciation: more than
half of its plant species are endemics (Medail
& Quézel 1997; Blondel et al. 2010). The percentage
of endemic species is especially high,
albeit variable in the Eastern Mediterranean
continental mountain ranges such as Taurus
and Lebanon (Blondel & Aronson 2005).
Lebanon is located on the eastern coastline of
the Mediterranean Sea, and recognized as one
of the region’s mini-hotspots that shelters high
biodiversity richness (Medail & Quezel
1999). Two major climatic zones have been
identified: the Mediterranean zone and the
pre-steppe areas (Zohary 1973; Abi Saleh et
al. 1996). The floristic richness estimates
2,600 plant species with a high percentage of
endemic plant species (12%). This includes
221 broad endemics and 90 narrow endemics
(Khouzami et al. 1996). Lebanon is a geographically
complex and mountainous country
with 73% of its total area consisting of two
mountain ranges: Mount Lebanon and the
Anti-Lebanon mountain chain (De Vaumas
1954). The nature of its highlands in terms of
inaccessibility and the hostile conditions of
the environment at such altitudes has resulted
in the relative restriction of human intervention.
In remote mountainous areas, providing
conditions that favor human settlements, one
can find sporadic villages that mostly rely on
agro-pastoral systems while simultaneously
complementing their sources of sustenance by
being highly dependent on biodiversity. In
more extreme cases, agriculture has fully
exploited mountainous areas and man-made
terraces have become part of the natural landscape
(Sattout & Abboud 2007). According to
estimates, 74% of Lebanon’s surface area was
historically covered with forests (Makdisi
2007); however, today with a deforestation
rate of 0.4% per annum (MOA 2005), recent
83