1. The Sixteenth Session of the FAO Near East Forestry Commission was held in Beirut from 24 to 27 May 2004 at the kind invitation of the Government of the Republic of Lebanon. The session was attended by 48 representatives from 19 member countries, and nine observers from non-member countries, UN agencies, international intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations. A list of participants is provided in Annex B.
2. The Session was opened by Mr. Abdel Azim Mirghani Ibrahim (Sudan), Chairman of the Commission, who welcomed the participants and called the meeting to order. The Chairman then invited Mr. Abdel Salam Ould Ahmed, FAO Representative in Lebanon, to take the floor. In his address, Mr. Ould Ahmed thanked the Government of the Republic of Lebanon for hosting the session and referred to the strong and longstanding cooperation between the Government and FAO in all agricultural sectors. Forests were a central component within the Government’s priority areas of development and the Commission was an important vehicle for supporting sustainable forest management activities throughout the region.
3. On behalf of the Director-General of FAO, Dr. M. Hosny El-Lakany, Assistant Director-General, FAO Forestry Department, thanked the Ministry of Agriculture of Lebanon for its hospitality and for the excellent arrangements made in organizing the 16th Session of the Near East Forestry Commission. He referred to the importance of the Commission as a forum for discussing and identifying problems and emerging issues common to the region and as a link between international dialogue and its translation into practical action on the ground, as emphasized by the Committee on Forestry (COFO). Dr. El-Lakany acknowledged the interdependence of forests, water and agriculture, and emphasized the need to ensure that this dynamic relationship was adequately reflected in policy development and practical programmes. He highlighted the importance of forests in alleviating poverty and as a major source of rural livelihoods, and the need to achieve equilibrium between environmental and human needs. The 2003 restructuring of the FAO Forestry Department had been undertaken to better respond to member countries’ broad needs. Dr. El-Lakany concluded by inviting member countries to ensure active participation in the March 2005 session of COFO and ministerial-level presence at the preceding high-level meeting on forests convened by the FAO Director-General.
4. Mr. Louis Lahoud, Director-General of the Ministry of Agriculture, and representative of His Excellency the Minister for Agriculture, welcomed participants on behalf of his Government. In his inaugural speech, he stressed the concerns of the Lebanese leadership about the country’s forest resources and the degradation incurred over the past decades. This concern was reflected in a number of remedial measures, which included inter alia the quest for:
• regulations to coordinate land use for residential, industrial agricultural, health, educational and communication purposes, with a view to conserving remaining forests and tree cover; and
• new mechanisms to regulate land use and the development of public goods, such as sea shores, air, natural scenery, plants, historical sites and public parks.
5. Mr. Lahoud also pointed out that the Government of Lebanon had ratified the United Nations Convention on Desertification Control and commenced with its five-year plan for reforestation and the expansion of green spaces. This had been consolidated through the promulgation of a 1996 act for forest protection followed by a number of decrees to declare some forests as natural protectorates. Following the country’s ratification of the Convention on Biological Diversity, new legislation was before the legislature for the conservation of natural protected areas. Cooperation was also under way with neighboring Syria to reafforest the eastern mountains.
