The Earth Knows No Religion

BEIRUT - August 2008: The General Assembly of the Lebanese Green Party elected the members to their National Executive Council.

At the meeting, which was held at the Monroe Hotel in Downtown Beirut, CEO of Grey Advertising Philippe Skaff was elected Party President. Nada Zaarour, President of the Association for Forests, Development and Conservation (AFDC) was elected Green Party Vice President, political analyst Osama Safa Secretary General and Sawsan Abu Fakhredinne, Director General of AFDC, was elected Treasurer.

The Green Party, whose slogan is "The Earth Knows No Religion," was launched in 2004 by a number of prominent environmental advocates, including former Environment Minister Akram Chehayeb, Farid Shaaban, Lamya Mansour, Nada Zaarour, Munir Abou Ghanem, Mohammed Al Khawli, Edgard Chehab and Michel Skaff.

The party was founded, said Skaff, because "people felt that the efforts of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and individuals to impact the ever-deteriorating state of Lebanon's environment had reached its limits, and that the creation of a political party ... would have a better chance in advancing the cause."

According to Abu Fakhreddine, "We thought we should have a group that would push the government to change its environmental policies." Talking about the work of environmental NGOs, she said, "Unless we reach the decision-making levels, we cannot change policy. Environment is a common ground for people to introduce change to many things in Lebanon."

Speaking at the meeting on Tuesday, Skaff said the Green Party would support the Environment Ministry and hold it accountable for Lebanon's environmental policies. Skaff also identified the priorities of the party, which included a massive reforestation program over a 10-year period to return to Lebanon "the levels of forest surface area it had in the 1970s, at the very least." A National Environmental Watch Center would also be established, along with "what we would like to call 'the Green Brigade' under the command of the Lebanese Armed Forces, which would enforce laws that impact the environment and without which, no progress can be expected on any front."

Providing detailed examples of why a Green Party was needed in Lebanon, Skaff told The Daily Star that Lebanon's forests were disappearing at an alarming rate. He added that "5,000 years ago a squirrel could travel the whole country by merely hopping from tree to tree."

But by the 1960s, forests covered only 35 percent of the country, he said. In 1972 that had decreased to 22 percent, and today stands at a mere 13 percent. AFDC, an NGO actively working on fire fighting and fire prevention, "has counted over 70,600 forest fires since 1993," said Skaff. "If we carry on in this way our forests will have totally disappeared by 2030," he warned.

Lebanon's environmental management record was similarly unimpressive.

"Out of 22,000 industrial factories, half of which are in Beirut, 90 percent throw their toxic and non-toxic waste in the sea," said Skaff.

"Out of 863 samples of our drinking water, 40 percent proved to be microbiologically polluted," he said, adding that while there were "800 companies selling water in Lebanon, only 11 percent are approved by the Ministry of Health. The rest operate illegally."

AFDC is currently "providing the Green Party with technical information" on Lebanon's environmental and development issues, said Fakhreddine, adding that the Green Party hoped to stand in future elections.

However, according to Skaff, "we have vowed not to run in any election so long as our political system is based on the archaic confessional distribution of responsibilities."

Fakhreddine likewise stressed the secular nature of the Green Party, saying that members in political parties "could not run" for public positions within the party.

"In the next few years, we need to focus on gaining more support," she said.

Adding to that, Skaff said "I cannot pretend that Lebanese people will rally us because of our non-confessional status, but I know a lot of them have had enough with sectarianism."

Skaff recalled that French philosopher Ernest Renan once described Beirut as 'the Florence of the Orient.' But 10 years ago, he said, French magazine "Paris Match voted it the ugliest city on the Mediterranean."

He added: "You ask me about my credentials as leader of the Green Party and I will answer very simply: you do not have to be a chicken to identify a rotten egg."