Ecologia Mediterranea
Ecologia Mediterranea
Ecologia Mediterranea
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
projects should abide strictly by the environmental<br />
standards. EIA and SEA are required<br />
prior to these activities. This category covered<br />
agricultural lands and terraces in Michmich<br />
and Qammoua.<br />
(e) Urban Development: Adoption of defined<br />
standards for construction and development<br />
projects. Buffer zones will be defined and<br />
delineated between forests and villages.<br />
Framework for an integrated<br />
monitoring program<br />
The integrated monitoring program was<br />
designed taking into account the land conservation<br />
and management map, botanical<br />
assessment, and forest structure and composition,<br />
as well as the technical capacity of<br />
local communities. It sets the basis for monitoring<br />
forest structure and composition. The<br />
program defined a number of selected species<br />
for monitoring such as Cepahalanthera rubra<br />
(L.) Rich., Cephalanthera longiflora (Huds.)<br />
Frisch, Orchis simia Lam., S. mouterdeii, and<br />
Tulipa aleppensis Regel. The manual of the<br />
monitoring program was developed for use as<br />
both a reference document and a tool for local<br />
practitioners (Sattout 2008). A belief in the<br />
local communities’ capacity in parataxonomy<br />
was the starting point for success in this challenging<br />
approach. Local sources who have<br />
built up a non-tangible database of local<br />
names and the natural history of plants and<br />
animals were identified during this study. It is<br />
believed that local sources can be employed<br />
as efficient collectors. The manual introduced<br />
the basic techniques of plant classification and<br />
identification. It provided a general overview<br />
on the plant kingdom, identification criteria,<br />
techniques, and collection of plant specimens.<br />
This manual presented the monitoring concept<br />
and adaptive management approach to<br />
help draw a clear picture of future activities<br />
and to seed a sense of ownership over<br />
resources and partnership for future management<br />
activities in the national park. It integrated<br />
detailed information on techniques and<br />
methodologies for data collection on species<br />
richness and forest composition and structure<br />
over a period of 10 years.<br />
ecologia mediterranea – Vol. 38 (2) – 2012<br />
Towards the establishment of a natural park in Eastern <strong>Mediterranea</strong>n forests in Mount Makmel:<br />
Botanical assessment and communities participation practices<br />
Conclusion<br />
Exemplified as an ecoregion, the Akkar-Dunniyeh<br />
area shelters a geographically distinct<br />
assemblage of Eastern <strong>Mediterranea</strong>n forest<br />
types, land use categories, and landscapes<br />
shared by a substantial percentage of the<br />
entire flora found in Lebanon as well as a significant<br />
portion of endemics. The high-value<br />
biological component of this site is rooted in<br />
the critical interactions of its natural and seminatural<br />
habitats (typical to Lebanon) and<br />
incrusted in the marked topographical relief,<br />
which are essential for the long-term survival<br />
of these species. The variations in human land<br />
use patterns and site-specific histories of<br />
resource management, which often resulted in<br />
overexploitation and resource depletion, have<br />
had a profound impact on living systems. The<br />
revealed ecological diversity in the region<br />
may have contributed to various aspects of<br />
ecosystem stability. These include long-term<br />
stability of productivity and resilience to disturbances,<br />
resulting from anthropogenic activities<br />
(Lavorel 1999). Collaborative management<br />
of natural resources has proven to be the<br />
best way to achieve good practices of biodiversity<br />
conservation, performed in partnership<br />
with local communities and other relevant<br />
stakeholders. In order to ensure development<br />
of strong technical skills, the adopted<br />
approach paved the way for future implementation<br />
of collaborative management<br />
strategies.<br />
The database built during the first phase of the<br />
project now constitutes the first updated background<br />
information on the ecological profile<br />
of the designated national park of the Akkar-<br />
Dunniyeh area. The botanical assessments on<br />
forest composition and structure have set the<br />
basis for management guidelines and the<br />
development of the integrated monitoring program.<br />
Nevertheless, keeping up the momentum<br />
toward the establishment of the Akkar-<br />
Dunniyeh national park will not be an easy<br />
task in a volatile Lebanese context where the<br />
culture of either local communities or government<br />
agencies must be dealt with, bridges<br />
built between various stakeholders, and the<br />
administrative and management framework<br />
for such in-situ conservation systems established<br />
and strengthened.<br />
91