Eighteen villages were preselected by
Ibsar to participate in the competition
BaldatiBi’ati(BVA). Winners were announced in an award ceremony held on Oct. 26
th, 2011. The event was held at the Safir Hotel, in Raouche, under the auspices of the Directorate General in the Ministry of Interior and Municipalities, and was funded by the Coca-Cola Foundation. Representatives of partnering institutions, projects participants,
Ibsar members, and members of the press
attended the event.
The pre-selection process was based on two years of planting activities in collaboration with 50 municipalities. An AUB faculty committee was formed to act as a jury and develop a criteria for judging, taking into account the villages’ size, culture, as well as economic, environmental, natural, and social resources and heritage.
The ceremony included a display of the villages’ green maps and featured a documentary highlighting best practices in every village. The BVA competition awarded certificates of best practices to all practicing villages and gave four BVA in the form of Street Signs: the village of Aarsal, the Sustainable Management of the Jurd Award; the village of Niha, the Sustainable Management of Forest Award; the village of Kawkaba, the Sustainable Management of Waterfront Award; and the village of Meshmesh, the Environmentally Active Community Award.
Ibsar Director, Dr. Najat Saliba opened the ceremony with a few introductory words, highlighting the promotion of biodiversity and nature conservation as well as engaging local communities to take such initiatives, regardless of the difficulties faced. Mr. Khalil Hajal, Director General of Municipalities, praised the collaborative effort of Ibsar and the participating villages. This collaboration, according to him, is an asset to the development of the community and the preservation of the environment and its natural resources. Representing the Provost, Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences, Dr. Nahla Howalla, in her turn, stressed the importance of Ibsar’s projects to Lebanon’s future, encouraging local communities as well as the public and private sectors to participate in projects such as the BVA.
BVA Principal Investigator and Chair of the Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management Department at AUB, Dr. Salma Talhouk, explained that the project aims at targeting the conservation efforts of each village, the promotion of awareness towards biodiversity and the protection of native species, and recognizes the natural resources and heritage of each village. She stated that the project revealed interesting information and statistics about the participating villages:
Most [villages] have 20% more green cover, harbor 24 Lebanese native tree species, and have allocated a combined 100,000 m2 of public lands to tree planting. The project also showed that most villages have preserved traditional activities such as bee keeping, wild edible plants collection and local nature walks and are interested in encouraging ecotourism. The Coca-Cola Foundation has been a vital partner in helping to get this project on the road and we are extremely grateful for their continuous support.
Mr. Antoine Tayyar, representing the Coca-Cola Foundation views the collaboration between private and public sectors as integral to the development of the country and the preservation of its natural and environmental resources.
BaldatiBi’ati, launched in 2010, intends to become an annual event in order to visibility and recognition to villages which engage in the planning and implementation of projects and initiatives that promote the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.