Can one of the the worse economic and financial crises that the modern world has seen be an opportunity to address priorities while enabling the environmental security? The Second Multi-Stakeholder Consultations held last week in Beirut was one attempt in that direction. Wide and committed participation of the numerous stakeholders coming from different governmental and non-governmental organisations, academia and private sector have been seen in Beirut for two days, where solutions, interlinkages and priorities for water, energy, food, and environment, including coastal zone and its aquifers were discussed. Particular emphasis has been given to the MedProgramme activities focused on the gender issues. International organizations implementing the MedProgramme UNEP/MAP, PAP/RAC, Plan Bleu/RAC and UNESCO-IHP joined GWP-Med in Lebanon to support the country in finding solutions to the burning issues.
PAP/RAC team also held a progress meeting to discuss the contribution for the comparative assessment of the coastal legislation in Lebanon, preliminary calculations of the land cover change, and the scoping findings for the ICZM Strategy.
