Country Study on Status of Land Tenure, Planning and Management in Oriental Near East Countries
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Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Regional Office for the Near East (RNE) Oriental Near East Sub-Region (SNO) Country Study on Status of Land Tenure, Planning and Management in Oriental Near East Countries C A S E O F LEBANON B y Talal Darwish (National Consultant) E d i t e d b y Faycel Chenini ( I n t e r n ational Consultant) Supervised by Moujahed Achouri (DRR - R N E , H M D T - SNO - FAO) F A O - SNO CAIRO, EGYPT - 2 0 1 2 The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of FAO. ISBN 978-92-………………. All rights reserved. FAO encourages reproduction and dessimination of material in this information product. Non-commercial uses will be be authorized free of charge, upon request. Reproduction for resale or other commercial purposes, including educational purposes, may incur fees. Applications for permission to reproduce or disseminate FAO copyright materials, and all queries concerning rights and licences, should be addressed by e-mail to [email protected] or to: Chief, Publishing Policy and Support Branch, Office of Knowledge Exchange, Reaearch and Extension FAO Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00153 Rome, Italy © FAO 2012 Cover page‟s photos from Syria and Jordan by F. Chenini and from Lebanon by S. Hajj Hassan. II Foreword Land tenure, planning and management gain increasing importance in view of accumulating problems related to natural resources degradation notably for the Oriental Near East Countries (namely the Arab Republic of Egypt, Lebanon, the Syrian Arab Republic, Jordan, Iraq and the Islamic Republic of Iran). Natural resources degradation constitutes an important threat for the human society especially in the Near East region. Land and water degradation is affecting and will affect agriculture and all dimensions of food security, such as food availability, food accessibility, food utilization and food systems stability. Scarcity and degradation of land and water have and will have an impact on human health, livelihood assets and food production as well as growing threat to food security. The State of the World‟s Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture (SOLAW), recently published, notes that food production has been associated with inappropriate management practices that have degraded the land and water systems. The global assessment of the state of the planet‟s land resources is showing that one quarter are highly degraded. Another 8 % are moderately degraded, 36 % are stable or slightly degraded and 10 % are ranked as “improving.” The remaining shares of the earth‟s land surface are either bare (around 18 %) or covered by inland water bodies (around 2%). Some 40 % of the world‟s degraded lands are located in areas with high poverty rates. Around 30 % are in areas with moderate levels of poverty while 20 % are in areas with low poverty rates. The Oriental Near East Sub-region (SNO) is one of the most affected regions by direct and indirect causes of land degradation that is remaining one of the main challenges of the twenty-first century. The threats are still present throughout all member countries and will likely worsen with important impacts on sustainable agriculture in general and food security in particular. Over the last few years, FAO has: i) dedicated considerable attention to land issues and taken a wide range of initiatives and activities, particularly in the Near East Region; ii) promoted sustainable land management constitutes one of the main priorities in the agenda of FAO Regional Office for the Near East; iii) reinforced capacity in land management and tenure for sustainable agriculture in the Sub- region; and iv) helped in the identification of appropriate actions and developing capacities in land tenure, planning and management. In response to requests from its Member Countries, FAO has also dedicated considerable attention to improve agricultural productivity and food security with special consideration to sustainable land management and natural resources conservation. FAO approaches land management by developing land degradation assessment methods and sustainable land management and decision support tools for national and local levels. Presently, FAO is more focusing on: • Land tenure and implications of climate change scenarios; • Land tenure and implications of policy options in relation to the rapid growth of land use for bio-energy production; • Land tenure in emergency and post-emergency work; • Compulsory purchase of land and compensation; • State land management; • Low-cost land tenure security; • Good governance in land administration; and • Making land information accessible for the poor.. FAO/SNO produced this country study on the “Status of Land tenure, Land Management and Land use planning in SNO Countries” – Case of Lebanon to update information and data, and subsequently, identify issues and priorities for technical and policy support, both with a sub-regional dimension and needed recommendations. It aims at providing a highlight of the current situation regarding land tenure, planning and management and making and adopting potential recommendations on what needs to change at policy and institutional and ground levels to promote interdisciplinary and inter- ministerial/institutional processes. FAO and its partners, in collaboration with member countries, will continue to cooperate and provide technical assistance with practical and feasible recommendations for promoting sustainable land III management and on what needs to change at policy and institutional and ground levels to promote interdisciplinary and inter-institutional processes on planning, tenure and management in the sub- region. Moujahed Achouri Deputy Regional Representative for the Near East, Head of the Multidisciplinary Team for Oriental Near East Sub-Region, and FAO Representative in Egypt. IV Acknowledgement Based on the complexity of the problem and multitude of issues, several experts contributed to the accomplishment of this study. Beside the main author, Dr Talal Darwish, Dr Nadine Nassif (Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Science, LU) contributed to the compilation of part I (Legal Approach). The following experts contributed to the preparation of part II: Dr Amin Shaban authored the section related to Water Resources. The two sections related to protected sites and forestlands were developed by Dr Carla Khater and Eng. Rita Njaim (CNRS-CRS). The new maps and image processing were done by Dr Ghaleb Faour (CNRS, CRS). The achievement of this study was possible due to the assistance of Eng. Aurore Assaker, Eng. Youmna Achkar and Eng. Roger Francis (CNRS-CRS), Dr. Ihab Jomaa (Department of Irrigation, Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute, LARI), Mr. Youssef el-Khoury (Operative manager of the Mediterranean Institute of Certification, MIC), Mr. Khalil Haddad (General Manager of the Libancert), Mr. Kassem Jouni (GIZ), Eng. Salime Roukoz and Dr Elie Chouairy (Ministry of Agriculture). Talal Darwish Beirut, February 2012 V Executive Summary The report deals with land tenure issues in Lebanon and analyzes major problems facing sustainable agriculture in view of natural setting, prevailing practices and existing legislation. Lebanon consists mainly of rugged mountainous regions with slopping and steep lands. The population of Lebanon in 2007 was 4 million with 407,362 residing in Beirut, the administrative capital of Lebanon. One of the main problems in land tenure and land management issues is the cadastre where a significant part of Lebanon is still outside the cadastre (North Bekaa, East Mountains). Based on rainfall amount and land occupation, Lebanon was divided into five large regions and twelve agro climatic zones. Lebanese agriculture is divided into seven agro-climatic regions with 40 homogeneous agricultural areas (Lebanese Agricultural Atlas, MoA, 2005). The land use map of Lebanon published by CDR (SDATL, 2003) showed that the major agricultural areas are located in the Bekaa followed by the Akkar plain and South Lebanon. Agricultural land use in Lebanon might be represented by three main cropping patterns, vegetables monoculture, wheat potato rotation and land under permanent crops - fruit trees or grape production. The total cultivated land area in Lebanon in 2007 was 277,000 ha (27 percent of the total land area), of which about 50 percent was irrigated. Irrigation water in the country is still primitively managed. According to national irrigation experts, the majority of watered lands in Lebanon (67%) are irrigated by gravity feed systems (furrows). The protected areas are Lebanon‟s threatened national living museums representing invaluable scientific treasure and economic security. This report will provide an overview of types of PAs in Lebanon and the institutions that are involved in the designation, protection and management of them. Lebanon has been designating protected