NGO representatives during the press conference on Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025, by Beirut's coastline. (Photo provided by the "The Coastline for All" campaign)
Dozens of NGOs under the "Coastline for All" campaign held a press conference Tuesday on the Ain Mreisseh Corniche in Beirut to denounce the growing attacks against the coastline in recent months, from the North to the South. The campaign announced a sit-in next Tuesday in front of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport — the authority over the coastline — in Hazmieh, to protest this chaos on Lebanon's coasts.
"We thought we had moved into an era of building a state of law, but we are disappointed and feel our coast and our public spaces have been abandoned," said Mohammad Ayoub, president of the association Nahnoo, as he read a statement on behalf of the campaign.
The NGOs denounce not only attacks on public maritime land under the guise of beach projects, but also "the marginalization of these issues in the corridors of the ministries." The statement notes that "the responsibility of protecting the coastline falls mainly on the Ministry of Public Works and Transport."
"Public lands, as their name indicates, belong to the people, not to the ministry, which is nevertheless responsible for their maintenance on behalf of the people, not for a minority who claim the right to benefit from them," the statement continues. It adds: "The concerned ministries are not just ignoring our requests, but are now granting 'maintenance permits' to violators, which are in fact disguised permits paving the way for violations on public property."
Given this situation, the associations are calling for three "urgent" measures: the revocation of maintenance permits already granted, the removal of violations on the coastline, especially recent ones, and the cancellation of all permits to occupy public maritime lands.
From Batroun to Naqoura, multiple violations
The NGOs have thus decided to demonstrate next Tuesday in front of the headquarters of the Ministry of Public Works and Transport to protest against "the laxity in addressing violations and the repeated disregard of activists' requests." They also accuse the ministry of failing to hold defiant municipalities accountable and of becoming "complicit" in these violations. They further remind that the Ministry of Environment also bears responsibility for the protection of the coastline (notably by requiring environmental impact studies).
These violations are not rare, especially the most recent one: a beach resort in the city of Batroun (North Lebanon) that was built starting with a wooden platform and no meaningful permit; another in the same region that blocks access to the beach; two more resorts in Thoum (also in Batroun district), one under the cover of a permit for a "tent," and the other where construction continued despite successive stop-work orders...
The "Coastline for All" campaign also mentions two private villas in similar cases, one in Kfarabida (Batroun) whose owner refuses to open beach access, and another in Amchit (Jbeil) which threatens a cave frequented by a monk seal, an endangered species.
In southern Lebanon, in Sour, a major project involving the Lebanese Army was halted just in time, but not without impacting the city's maritime reserve. The Abbasieh reserve (Sour) has also fallen victim to an ongoing construction project. Even further south, in Naqoura, a project was stopped but the violations have not been dismantled.
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