Lebanon’s Cedar Trees Threatened by Climate Change

A Lebanese cedar.<a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=2262372">Sybille Yates</a>/Shutterstock


This story first appeared on the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

King Solomon used them in the construction of the temple that would bear his name, the Phoenicians used them to build their merchant ships, and the ancient Egyptians used their resin in the mummification process. But now Lebanon’s cedar trees (Cedrus libani), described in the Scriptures as “the glory of Lebanon” and by the 19th-century French Romantic poet Alphonse de Lamartine as “the most famous natural monuments in the world”, face a new threat in the form of climate change.

Emblazoned on the national flag, currency, and the country’s national airline, the cedar is the one great unifying emblem of this small Mediterranean nation. Centuries of deforestation have already seen the tree’s 500,000 hectares decimated to its current 2,000 hectares, and it has been added to the IUCN’s red list of threatened species, albeit at the lowest level of threat.

The cedars, some up to 3,000 years old and almost all of which are now protected, need a minimum amount of snow and rain for natural regeneration. But global warming has meant that Lebanon’s cedars are being subjected to shorter winters and less snow, and the Lebanese government estimates that snow cover could be cut by 40 percent by 2040.

Nabil Nemer, the head of the agricultural sciences department at Lebanon’s Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, said that the lack of snow was not the only problem linked to climate change. “Insects, due to the changing climatic condition, become more active and their development rate is faster, thus causing more outbreaks, which weaken the cedar tree, making them more susceptible to other diseases and/or insects, which will ultimately kill the trees,” he said. “At least one insect has been studied, and the results showed that outbreaks of this insect are due to climate change, a low period of snow, and low humidity in summer. This insect, the Cephalcia tannourinensis, is a serious cedar tree defoliator.”

But, with sectarian difficulties forever dominating the political agenda, the fight to preserve Lebanon’s cedars can be a frustrating one. Nemer, who is also project coordinator of Support to Nature Reserves of Lebanon, said that while the Lebanese government was concerned about the threat to its emblem, not enough was being done to stop deforestation and plant new cedars: “Whether what is being done is enough—it is enough when you see the number of groups involved and it is not enough when you observe what is done, how it is done and by whom.”

Elsa Sattout, whose doctorate entailed a multidisciplinary study of Lebanon’s cedar forests, defended the country’s approach and noted the cedar is protected by law, but said more could be done.

“There are many reforestation projects undertaken by nongovernmental organizations and funded by international agencies, which have and are taking place, but, for me, these could have been more successful,” she said. Since 2009, for example, Starbucks and the Association for Forest Development and Conservation have partnered to plant several thousand cedars in areas of Lebanon afflicted by forest fires.

She also highlighted a mass spraying project against Cephalcia tannourinensis in a joint effort between the American University of Beirut and the ministries of agriculture and environment.

A spokesman from the country’s Lebanese agricultural ministry told the Guardian: “When, for example, the threat of the Cephalcia tannourinensis was discovered in the Tannourine nature reserve we had experts from France to assess the danger and they suggested the insecticide to use, which we dropped using helicopters and were successful in drawing an environmental balance—and keeping the insect at bay. The cedars are our treasure and we need to preserve this treasure for many hundreds and thousands of years to come.”

More Mother Jones reporting on Climate Desk

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate