Lebanon

Be the director, leading actor/actress, camerman & producer of your own movie and win one of our cash prizes!

The ERA- Net SusCrop is launching a video contest to actively involve EVERYBODY from across the world to reflect, communicate and inspire on ‘what sustainable crop production means to you?’.

The competition is open to EVERYBODY and is supposed to activate multiple groups: school children, students, scientists, farmers/farmer-groups, and any person/group of random enthusiasts, artists (film, circus, music, digital/installation art, …), architects, social media/communication workers, etc.

KEYWORDS to inspire: sustainability, resilience, agriculture, forestry, ecology, crop production, crops, plants, science, nature, climate change, the future

However, we invite any kind of video: be original, think out-of-the-box! What does sustainability in the area of crop production mean to you? How should agriculture look like in the future? Do you practice sustainability procedures in growing crops or ornamental plants in your environment (e.g. your garden or balcony)?

More information on the different categories, prizes, eligibility conditions and selection criteria can be found on: https://www.suscrop.eu/video-contest-2022

We look forward to receiving your video!

Shedding light on greenways as important trails to valorize and conserve in Lebanese villages.

Natural protection that balances both conservation and growth is crucial to create a livable environment and maintain open spaces. Greenways are the passages that provide linking the spaces that have the specialty of high natural resource or are of cultural aspects. Those greenways which need less open space than conventional parks make possible various recreational activities while preserving the cultural identity of the space.

In this view, The Department of the Landscape and Territory Planning at the Lebanese University will organize two breathtaking days in the wild lost and hidden greenways in Kfardebiane, Jezzine and Ferzol villages. The aim of this activity is to explore and valorize more these paths as a tribute and identity to our Lebanese villages. Greenways characteristics, history, cultural identity, scenic importance, functionality and plant diversity will be unraveled.

A guided tour of Ibad Al Rahman Scouting village in Burjein will introduce the girl scout leaders and association’s volunteers to the wild trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants of the area. They will get to know the rich diversity of the Lebanese flora and its importance. More over, they will learn to identify some edible, medicinal and toxic plants.

A guided tour to Ammuq wetlands and Ammiq reserve to explain the importance of wild plants and their in situ and ex situ conservation to a group of young environment activists volunteers

Trees native to Lebanon are profiled including their morphological characteristics, distribution and ecology.

For The Sixth international “Fascination of Plants Day 2022-FoPD 2022”, Dr. Marc Beyrouthy and a Team of Agricultural Engineers will be conducting a series of workshops and events as follows :

• Kids Gardening Event
• Lebanese Wild Native Orchids Youtube Episode
• Iris sofarana the endemic beauty of Lebanon
• Botanical and Foraging Hiking Trip

Goals 

– Raise awareness!

– Spread Lebanese Plants fascination.

Hashtags Used : #plantday #naturebymarcbeyrouthy #madebynature

With increasing health and environmental awareness, organic farming has become an integral part of the agricultural policy in many countries.

The target of an organic farm is not the high quantity of production, but  it is the improvement of the quality of the agricultural crops.

Unfortunately, most of our Lebanese agricultural organic food products in the markets are contaminated with pesticides.

Celebrating the Fascination Day of Plants, 2022, the students of Environmental Sciences course, Department of Natural Sciences, School of Arts and Sciences, Lebanese American University, will be participating through organizing an event on Beirut campus on April 29, 2022.

The event will focus on raising awareness and knowledge about the importance of consuming more organic food with focusing on its benefits, raising awareness also on buying certified organic food as most of the organic food present in the Lebanese markets is not controlled and not certified and showed to be contaminated with pesticides. During the event, the students will present a poster focusing on this problem and will distribute organic seedlings.

The Mediterranean Basin is a hotspot of biodiversity with high richness in both endemic as well as medicinal and aromatic plants. In particular, Lebanon hosts an important flora heritage that has witnessed a history of civilizations. The country is renowned for its richness in medicinal and aromatic plants which have long been used by local communities to heal diseases or ailments or to prepare traditional Lebanese recipes. However, those plants are subject to severe anthropogenic pressures, suffering mainly from illegal harvesting, and some of them are threatened or endangered.
The Department of Natural Sciences of the School of Arts and Sciences at the Lebanese American University and the Environment Club at the university will be participating in the International Fascination of Plants Day 2022, through organizing an event on Beirut campus on April 29, 2022. The event will focus on raising awareness on the importance of wild medicinal and aromatic plants of Lebanon, their ethnobotanical uses by local communities, as well as the threats they are facing from unsustainable harvesting, habitat fragmentation and climate change. Students will profit from a poster listing important wild medicinal and aromatic plants of Lebanon where they can pick a plant and see its traditional uses by local communities. Students will also profit from an exhibition of samples of some medicinal and aromatic plants, including the Syrian marjoram or oregano, Lebanon shrubby sage and carob as well as some products and traditional Lebanese recipes like Zaatar and Carob Molasses.

Students of “Développement des organismes animaux et végétaux” course, first year biochemistry at USJ-CLN, collected around 20 wild plants of differents families to make a mini personal herbarium. While  collecting the plants to be pressed in the herbarium, the students were exposed to wild flowers of Lebanon which they never noticed before they took the course; visited natural green areas to collect plants from, learned how to identify plants to family, genus and species level. The collected plants will be presented in class on April 28, 2022. This activity will make the students notice and appreciate the high diversity and beauty of wild plants in Lebanon.

Students of “Développement des organismes animaux et végétaux” course, first year biochemistry at USJ-CLN, will present about the most common families of Angiosperms in Lebanon such as Apiaceae, Asteraceae, Lamiaceae, Rosaceae,  Orchidaceae and others. They will learn the different characteristics of these families including stem, leaves, flowers and fruits that differentiate them from each other. Moreover, they will learn the edible species and industrial products from these families in addition to examples of wild species in Lebanon from each plant family.

This activity will teach the students about

1- the importance of plants to the survival of ecoysytems and mankind,

2- richness and diversity of angiosperms in general and in specifically in Lebanon

3- beauty of biodiversity

Students will explore the extent of plant Biodiversity in a real-world setting. Identification of example plants from different plant families will be profiled.