The pine forest of Bkassine, in the Jezzine district, reduced to ashes by a fire on Nov. 11. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient-Le Jour)
“Welcome to Bkassine, the Lebanese people’s favorite village in 2018,” reads a sign at the entrance of this Jezzine district village. The affection for this “endless paradise of pines,” as the Lebanese call it, stems largely from its vast forest — the largest in the Middle East — spanning 2.5 square kilometers and home to more than 120,000 stone pine trees.On the morning of Nov. 11, their charred trunks still smoldered beneath the church square. The once lush forest now lay in ashes. Need the context? From Akkar to south Lebanon, hectares of forest go up in smoke, sparking country-wide anger “The fire started around midnight in the village of Araya, on the other side of the valley,” said a Civil Defense member after a sleepless night of work. “With the strong wind, it devoured the entire pine forest and olive groves until it...
“Welcome to Bkassine, the Lebanese people’s favorite village in 2018,” reads a sign at the entrance of this Jezzine district village. The affection for this “endless paradise of pines,” as the Lebanese call it, stems largely from its vast forest — the largest in the Middle East — spanning 2.5 square kilometers and home to more than 120,000 stone pine trees.On the morning of Nov. 11, their charred trunks still smoldered beneath the church square. The once lush forest now lay in ashes. Need the context? From Akkar to south Lebanon, hectares of forest go up in smoke, sparking country-wide anger “The fire started around midnight in the village of Araya, on the other side of the valley,” said a Civil Defense member after a sleepless night of work. “With the strong wind, it devoured the entire pine forest and olive...
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