BEIRUT: A four-year reforestation project aiming to help Mediterranean countries realize goals set out in light of the 2015 Paris climate agreement will launch April 1 in Metns Broummana. Between April 1 and 5, the Grand Hills Hotel in Broummana will host the sixth annual Mediterranean Forest Week, an event to improve dialogue on Mediterranean forests, where further details about the projects will be outlined.

The Scaling up forest and landscape restoration in the Mediterranean project will be implemented by the Union for the Mediterranean, a 43-member intergovernmental dialogue organization, and the United Nations Food Agriculture Organization. The program has been allocated a budget of 1.85 million euros (about $2 million) between 2018 and 2022.

The project will pilot its forest and landscape restoration approaches in Lebanon and Morocco, but ultimately aims to build regional and national capacities to implement large-scale reforestation programs across the Mediterranean region, according to UfM.

The project has two tracks: national and regional. On the national level, UfM will attempt to secure sustainable or so-called green financing - one of the approaches - for environmental projects.

One of the main issues on everyones agenda is green finance. Its not an easy task, but we must find a business model for it, said Miguel Garcia-Herraiz, deputy secretary general for Water and Environment at UfM.

Later on in the project, these approaches will be scaled up to other interested countries in the Mediterranean region.

At the regional level, raising awareness is the projects first aim, starting with the projects launch at Mediterranean Forest Week, Garcia-Herraiz said. Later regional offerings will include capacity-building workshops and specialized technical assistance in land management and forestry.

Forestry is not just about planting trees, he told The Daily Star, pointing out that sustainable environmental policies must consider environmental preservation not as something done against human interest but in human interest.

From this starting point, Garcia-Herraiz believes that reforesting can - and should - dovetail with other goals within human development: for example, creating and preserving jobs, and improving land management.

UfM and FAO singled out the Chouf and Bkassine regions for the forest restoration project in Lebanon, because the Chouf is already a biosphere and Bkassine is particularly relevant for biodiversity, according to Garcia-Herraiz

As for the choice of the projects first countries, Lebanon and Morocco are well known for their forest landmass, so it was a logical choice to start with [these countries], Garcia-Herraiz said.

The Lebanese and Moroccan governments were happy to take part in the project, which shows that they are committed to working in these areas, he continued, adding that UfMs job is to help countries that cannot afford such projects themselves.

The FAO was also confident about its partners in Lebanon and Morocco, given its previous track record working with the countries state-run organizations, Garcia-Herraiz explained.

The FAO has previously worked with Lebanons Agriculture Ministry and Moroccos High Commissioner for Water and Forests.

UfM doesnt have a specific line of work with the [Agriculture Ministry]. But we have worked with the Lebanese government on water. So this is an interesting opportunity to expand our operations to the [Agriculture Ministry].

In terms of the restoration projects ambitions, Garcia-Herraiz said, We follow mandate from member states, and thus UfM will not yet be implementing any radical approaches to conservation such as rewilding - which seeks to restore areas of land to their pre-human state.

Organizations like Rewilding Europe are pioneering the practice in several European countries, including by encouraging large predators to return to environments where they were previously hunted to extinction.

[Rewilding] is a priority for many countries. If countries look to rewilding as something to assist in, wed be happy to join, he said.

Landscape is a totally social construct, Garcia-Herraiz added.

Mans intervention in forests is ancient. What we are doing today is preserving an existing landscape as we perceive it currently.

But, he added, UfM has enough on [its] plate already in general, referring to its work to reduce plastic consumption, remove marine litter from the Mediterranean Sea and establishing circular economies.

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