Decades of government neglect has allowed this situation to persist, with the little attention state officials have given it coming after international pressure. In 2014, for instance, the Polish diplomatic mission in Beirut called upon Lebanon to stop killing large numbers of white storks, which are considered symbols of prosperity in the central European country. Mohammad Machnouk, who was environment minister at the time, pledged that “the ministry will cooperate with municipalities to prevent this phenomenon.” Little action followed.
In place of state action, the Lebanese government has, until recently, effectively subcontracted its obligations for wildlife protection to a handful of NGOs, such as the Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon (SPNL) and the Middle East Sustainable Hunting Center (MESHC).
Signals this summer, however, suggested at least a nominal change of tune. In June, Salam’s cabinet issued a decree adding 106 new forest, hunting, and fisheries guards to the Ministry of Agriculture’s permanent staff. The government framed this as a major step to protect forests, biodiversity, and marine resources from illegal exploitation. These guards are intended to strengthen on-the-ground monitoring and enforcement capacity in rural and coastal areas and will wield the same powers as the judicial police.
Adonis al-Khatib, the head of the Anti Poaching Unit (APU), a group of hunters-turned-gamekeepers created by SPNL and MESHC in 2017, told BADIL that while this is a good start, more will need to be done to plug the gaps. “The challenge is that [the guards] don’t have the same presence on the ground—hunters are everywhere, in large numbers,” he said.
To plug the gaps, the government must support ethical hunters to combat poaching, at least until the state can muster the manpower to enforce environmental laws itself. There are myriad examples of legitimate hunters working to protect species and curb the damaging impacts of unchecked poaching. For instance, Ducks Unlimited, the world’s largest and most effective private waterfowl and wetlands conservation organization, was formed in the first half of the last century by hunters in North America seeking to preserve wetland birds. Other examples abound – such as in Kenya, Zimbabwe, and Iran – of hunters who, knowing how poachers work, themselves became the best protection for local wildlife.
Giving Lift to the Law
The Ministries of Environment, Agriculture and Interior and Municipalities issued a joint circular banning all wild bird hunting nationwide in September, a month that might have otherwise marked the beginning of the hunting season. Despite good intentions, the circular – which cited migratory species specifically – will likely be ineffective.
A persistent issue is that while judges issue warnings and fines, the associated financial penalties of such were set before the 2019 financial crisis, rendering them almost meaningless by the hyperinflation of the past few years. A more effective method would be confiscating hunters’ firearms, a tool used by authorities in France to enforce the law and one for which Lebanese activists are pushing, not least of all because they are also often shot at by poachers.
Another obvious policy option is upgrading poaching to a criminal offence. Evidence from Cyprus and Albania shows that upgrading penalties, as well as intense surveillance of poaching sites, reduces illegal bird killing (IBK) rates significantly.
Salam’s government has brought a welcome change in tone and intent regarding illegal slaughter of migratory birds. However, Lebanon’s commitment to the Rome Strategic Plan will remain more performative rather than operational unless existing laws are enforced, penalties are increased, and public attitudes toward wildlife are changed. In the long run, whether Lebanon is able to reduce its IKB rate remains unclear. What is sadly near certain is that, when millions of birds fly from Africa back to Europe and Asia this spring, they will be met with a hail of bullets in Lebanon.
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of BADIL | The Alternative Policy Institute or its editorial team.
