NWPStaging

The Government of Lebanon ratified the UNCCD in 1994 and produced the first National Action Program in 2003 that was not updated ever since. The update to the National Action Program (NAP) to combat desertification became a necessity to reflect the changes that occurred in Lebanon since the last action plan. The NAP is a comprehensive and integrated framework for addressing the physical, biological and socio-economic aspects of desertification, land degradation and drought (DLDD). In line with the Sustainable Development Goals, and mainly the Goal 15.3, and the related approach on Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN), the NAP goes beyond the 10-Years Strategy (2008-2018) of the UNCCD. The NAP process was developed along with the setting of LDN national voluntary targets and integrates the LDN targets as the core part of the action programme. The NAP presents pertinent background information that highlight the resources at stake, the drivers that are causing land degradation and that would significantly deteriorate the country's natural resources if sustainable management practices are not put in place. The main stakeholders that affect the sustainable management of natural resources are presented and their roles are briefly described. The NAP document provides an overview of the agriculture, rangeland and forest sectors as they are most pertinent to land degradation and are a source of sustenance for some of the country's most vulnerable social groups. The current knowledge of the state of these sectors is described and the opportunities to mitigate land degradation are provided. Given the impact disasters have on land degradation processes, the country's ability to withstand disasters and risks is briefly outlined. The importance of the land degradation neutrality (LDN) process is fully acknowledged in this NAP. The assessment of the extent of degradation, the exposure of lands to degradation and the formulation of national voluntary targets should form cornerstone elements of national land management strategies in the years to come. The Intergovernmental Working Group (IWG) of the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) defined LDN as "a state whereby the amount and quality of land resources, necessary to support ecosystem functions and services and enhance food security, remains stable or increases within specified temporal and spatial scales and ecosystems": In this context, the specific objectives of this work were to: 1) Compile all relevant background information related to desertification and land degradation in Lebanon. 2) Assess baseline trends in landcover/land-use, land productivity, and soil organic carbon stocks using geo-processing tools. 3) Map exposure to land degradation. 4) Set national voluntary targets for land degradation neutrality and the national action program. Using a tiered approach, the derivation of the indicator "trends in land degradation" was based on the synoptic utilization of trends in landcover/land-use Tier 1). trends in land productivity (Tier 2a),and trends in soil organic carbon (SOC) stocks (Tier 2b). Data collection for the inventory years 2000-2010 was conducted using satellite remote sensing for use in a Geographic Information System (GIS). In addition, the land productivity dynamics map and the soil map of Lebanon were extracted from global estimates of soil organic carbon stocks. Losses in vegetative covers, namely in forests (i.e., 1,783 ha), grassland (i.e., 1,201 ha), and cropland (i.e., 2,257 ha) were assessed using a baseline year in 2000 and a target year 2010. More specifically, the Kadaa of Sour experienced the highest loss in forest cover (i.e., 233 ha) followed by Jbeil (i.e.,131 ha) and El Metn (i.e., 111 ha). Simultaneously, the Kadaa of Baalbek experienced the highest loss in cropland (i.e., 632 ha) followed by west Bekaa (i.e., 296 ha) and Saida (i.e., 239 ha). The Kadaa of Baalbek experienced the highest loss in grassland (i.e., 192 ha) followed by Akkar (i.e., 129 ha) and Zahleh (i.e., 97 ha). The total area of vegetation cover affected by declining productivity was 22,660 ha (i.e., 5,896 ha of forest, 13,855 ha of cropland, and 2,909 ha of grassland). Meanwhile, the total area of vegetation cover affected by increasing productivity was 105,311 ha (i.e., 40,986 ha of forest, 42,864 of cropland, and 21,461 of grassland). The loss of soil organic carbon (SOC) between 2000 and 2010 was computed per landcover type. Accordingly, a total of 117,464 tons were lost in cropland, 120,943 tons in forest, and 71,575 tons in grassland. Five classes of exposure to land degradation, namely, very low, low, moderate, high, and very high were produced to represent the various ranges (in function of 20, 40%, 60%, and 80 percentiles) of values of total Net Primary Productivity (NPP) change between 2005 and 2014. Setting these fixed percentile thresholds for distinquishing among the different classes is expected to help in monitoring future geospatial changes and variations in exposure to land degradation. In this work, 39% of the Lebanese territory was classified as very high exposure to land degradation. The Kadaa of Baalbek comprised the largest area (i.e., 50,251 ha) with high exposure to land degradation followed by Sour (with an area of 28,552 ha) and Akkar (with an area of 25,717 ha), consecutively. Subsequently, by LDN assessment and measures comprised the reforestation/afforestation of 4,040 ha of public other lands (i.e., lands with little vegetation) using native tree species while working on forest law amendments and promoting economic incentives. Restoring a total area of 2,257 of abandoned agricultural land (currently classified as forest) and a total area of 1,201 ha of other land with little vegetation was also suggested. Other targets included the need to 1) avoid further decline of forest through law amendments and provide economic incentives for improving a total area of 5,896 ha of forest showing declining productivity, 2) use a diverse set of less-intensive and environmentally taxing practices to improve a total area of 13,855 ha of cropland showing declining productivity, and 3) adopt land management practices to avoid overgrazing, frequent fires, and soil erosion over a minimum area of 2,909 ha showing declining productivity. Simultaneously, it was suggested to maintain current management practices on land showing increasing productivity while avoiding fire hazards especially on forest and grassland areas. At the same time, it is essential to introduce financial alternative options for the preventions of encroachment in the vegetation cover for maintaining increasing land productivity in forest, cropland, and grassland. Finally, neutralizing the loss of soil organic carbon (i.e., 120,943 tons from forest, 117,464 tons from cropland, and 71,575 tons from grassland) requires the adoption of forest management practices (e.g., reduce fire frequency and severity, undertake forest management and harvesting plans, etc.), crop management (e.g. soil fertility enhancement, better rotation, erosion control, and irrigation), conservation tillage (e.g. reduced tillage, no-tillage), and pasture management (e.g. grazing management, introduction of legumes, sown pasture, etc.).