Nizar Hani

Shouf Biosphere Reserve – Chouf Region, Lebanon

Nizar Hani works with holistic ecosystem management, which includes civic engagement and local community involvement to protect nature and improve integrated ecosystem services such as sustainable agriculture and forest fire prevention through biomass management. As Lebanon’s population continues to grow, Nizar works to manage ecosystems threatened by climate change, tourism, and urbanization in a sustainable manner. With this in mind, Nizar also values natural resource management working with local communities in the stewardship of the Reserve, both in principle and for the practical economic benefit of the community.

As well Nizar works on sustainable agriculture projects as a means of both making the Reserve economically beneficial to the local community and reviving the largely abandoned cultural heritage of terrace cultivation in the Mount Lebanon region.

Nizar Hani grew up in Baadaran village at the foot of the Barouk and Niha mountains in Lebanon never dreaming that one day his life’s work would become the restoration of the mountain ecosystem. As director of the UNESCO Shouf Biosphere Reserve (SBR), his mission includes the conservation of wolves, striped hyenas, jungle cats and newly returned caracal wild cats.

The sparsely clad peaks of the Mount Lebanon range march across the SBR into the misty distance, topping a scattered patchwork of agricultural terraces and old stone villages populated mostly by Druze people, who settled the land in the Middle Ages. The rest of the estimated 228,000 people living within the reserve are Maronite and Greek Orthodox Christians, Sunni Muslims, and people displaced by the Syrian civil war. Since Hani took over the SBR in 2010, more than 1.5 million people have poured into Lebanon from Syria, displaced from their homes by the ongoing civil war. Now, around 58,000 Syrian people live within the reserve

Thirty-two mammal species, more than 275 bird species, and 31 amphibian and reptile species also call the SBR home. These include wolves, hyenas, jackals, porcupines, chameleons, tortoises, badgers, eagles, hyraxes, snakes, storks and many more. Researchers have cataloged more than 1,100 plant species; 25 are nationally and internationally threatened, according to the IUCN Red List, and 48 are found only in Lebanon or the wider region.

At 50,000 hectares (124,000 acres), an area nearly 10 times the size of Manhattan, the SBR is the biggest biosphere reserve in the Middle East. Designated by UNESCO in 2005, it includes a 620-hectare (1,532-acre) nature reserve originally set up in 1996 to conserve ancient Lebanese cedars (Cedrus libani).

The reserve was hailed by Restor, an ecological restoration network, as an example of best practices from among 727 biosphere reserves globally.

Cedars hold a special place in the hearts of Lebanese people. Lebanese art, music and business logos feature the majestic tree. It’s on the national flag, and even the country’s most popular cigarette brand is called Cedars.The strong connection between the Lebanese people and cedars helped build momentum to restore the whole Shouf landscape, on which both the cedars and local humans depend, Hani said.

The IUCN’s designation of the Lebanese cedar in 2013 as vulnerable, moving the species into the “threatened” category of the Red List, also helped raise awareness abroad.

Today, Lebanon struggles with currency depreciation of more than 90% and rickety governance hobbled by fractured leadership. The nation doesn’t feel a likely hotbed for ecological best practices, but to date the SBR’s 60 permanent staff are rising to the challenge nonetheless.

In August 2020, Nizar was awarded the prestigious Kenton R.Miller Award for Innovation in National Parks and Protected Area Sustainability from the International Union for the Conservation for Nature (IUCN). Nizar’s conservation leadership in the Biosphere Reserve in Lebanon serves as the model for restoration of nature, community development, climate change resilience, sustainable economic development, and the facilitation of peaceful reconciliation worldwide.

Article: Mongabay

Website: Shouf Cedar

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Video 1) Kenton R. Miller Award 2020 Winner
Video 2) Shouf Cedar Reserve