A tree illegally cut down in Akkar, northern Lebanon. (Photo provided by our correspondent Michel Hallak)
AKKAR — The mayor of Fneidek, Akkar district, has called on authorities to crack down on illegal logging, which he says is a serious concern in the northern Lebanese village.
L’Orient Today’s correspondent in the region reported that Samih Abdel, the mayor in the village located in the mountains between the sea and the Bekaa valley, released a statement addressing Lebanese Army commander General Joseph Aoun, “all respected security agencies, competent judicial authorities,” and the Environment and Agricultural Ministries. He called for them to intervene for the “protection of the forests of Fneidek and Akkar from gangs of firewood sellers and tree-cutters.”
Abdel said that Fneidek has 20 million square meters of “rare and sustainable forests considered a national treasure,” that cover almost half of the municipality’s 45 million square meters. The forests have been illegally logged consistently over the last four years by “a gang … whose members have wreaked havoc and felled all the green trees.”
The mayor said that last night, authorities from the municipality, having already called in authorities from the government on several occasions without effect, attempted to confiscate a load of newly felled wood themselves. But an “armed gang” forcibly took it back, Abdel said.
"We avoided clashing with them to prevent the situation escalating.”
Various environmental associations are regularly denouncing the mass logging of century-old trees in Lebanon, cut down for firewood at an alarmingly increasing rate, as the country struggles with an economic crisis that plunged the majority of the population into poverty. The market for firewood is especially aggravated by the high cost of fuel.
Unlicensed tree logging has become a widespread practice in Lebanon and puts the country at risk of ecological disaster.
Reporting contributed by Michel Hallak.