Lebanon’s Marine Protected Area Strategy: Supporting the management of important marine habitats and species in Lebanon.

With the intent of setting the national priority actions needed for the establishment of new marine protected areas and for the proper management of existing and new MPAs, and to define the type of interventions needed at technical, research, regulatory, policy, institutional, financial, educational, capacity building, communication and promotion levels, the Government of Lebanon adopted this Marine Protected Area Strategy. It is a national sector document that, in accordance with the articles of the Convention on Biological Diversity and other biodiversity-related Conventions and Agreements, aims to achieve a healthy, productive, and biologically diverse marine environment. This goal requires the creation of a well-managed, ecologically coherent network of marine protected areas (MPAs) in Lebanese waters as stated in the Vision of “an effective marine protected areas network contributing to sustainable development by enhancing natural and cultural diversity”.
The overall goal of the Strategy is the establishment of a network of marine protected areas, established and managed within an integrated marine management framework that contributes to the health of Lebanon’s sea and marine environment. To achieve this goal, this Strategy aims to fulfill the following objectives: (i) to establish a more systematic approach to marine protected areas planning and establishment; (ii) to enhance collaboration for management and monitoring of marine protected areas; (iii) to increase awareness, understanding and participation of the local community in the marine protected areas network; and (iv) to link Lebanon’s network of marine protected areas to Mediterranean networks.
The current marine protected areas strategy includes three strategic areas as follows: Strategic Area 1: Strengthening institutional capacity and MPAs management (main actions deal with creation of new MPAs, improvement of the legislation related to nature reserves, training programs, MPAs' boundaries delineation, public awareness and education, funding measures); Strategic Area 2: Contributing through MPAs to resource management and sustainable development (main actions deal with promoting alternative socio-economic activities in MPAs, sustainable local development, fishing wealth protection); Strategic Area 3: Developing scientific research in MPAs (main actions deal with organization of information, monitoring and decision-making tools development and development of scientific research).
To make fisheries more productive and sustainable, the Strategy promotes the restoration of fishery resources and respect of the ecological balance to the benefit of responsible fisheries through: (i) the establishment of rules for sustainable fishing in MPAs which give priority to resident communities, promoting better value enhancement, processing and marketing of fisheries; (ii) offering financial support for fishermen and their families in cooperation with relevant stakeholders; (iii) carrying out surveys for fishermen, fishing boats and fishing sites and integrate the data in the evaluation of the carrying capacity within MPAs; (iv) providing alternative for removal of prohibited fishing tools; (v) prohibit fishing activities during breeding or nursing seasons and provide compensation or alternative activities during the relevant period; (vi) promote pilot development activities on a local scale (e.g. aquaculture: encourage fish farming especially for endangered and over exploitation species).
The Strategy also proposes nine marine sites as marine protected areas for their biodiversity and the benefits for the marine environment resulting from protection. The network of marine protected areas proposed contain two declared sites, five river estuaries and nine marine locations to be declared in the future.