The aim of  the ‘Darwin Project in Coastal Vegetation Survey and Conservation for Lebanon’ is to improve national capacity for the management of plant diversity, threatened species management and protected area planning and management.

This project was conceived following discussions between staff and faculty members at RBG Kew and the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. These meetings identified the need to support national conservation objectives through the development of plant and habitat conservation skills in Lebanon.

Lebanon is a signatory of the Convention on Biological Diversity.  The conservation infrastructure of the country has suffered through years of civil war and is poorly developed in terms of protected area establishment and biological inventory.

This project directly supports the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the recently completed National Environmental Action Plan for Lebanon through developing capacity for botanical inventory (Article 7, of the Convention on Biological Diversity); survey work of culturally and economically important plant species (medicinals/aromatics), providing vital information to make recommendations for their sustainable use (Article 10); protected area management (Article 8); threatened species management (Article 9) and the promotion of public awareness of biodiversity and development issues (Article 13).

The coastal zone has suffered particularly as a result of unregulated urban development, and is recognized by the Ministry of Environment as the country’s most threatened habitat. It is the most threatened habitat in the Mediterranean basin.(IUCN-Parks for Life, 1994). The Mediterranean is recognized as a global center of plant diversity. Lebanon falls within the identified Center of Plant Diversity, the Levantine Uplands (Center of Plant Diversity SWA17; Davis, Heywood and Hamilton, 1994). The botanical diversity of this area is poorly researched and little information exists on the conservation status of important habitat areas and species. Lebanon has a flora of circa 4,100 vascular plant species, however, no modern and accurate species lists exist for vascular plant species. At least four endemic plant species are thought to have become extinct (Greuter, 1991,1994).

Timetable : April 1999 for 3 years