Southern Coast Protection

 

Green Southerners’ Vision for Protecting the Southern Lebanese Coast

The southern coast extends from Sidon to Naqoura. According to the National Physical Master Plan of 2009, it is a coastal strip with high environmental sensitivity. Its natural structure includes linked systems: coastal valleys, marine terraces, wetlands, agricultural plains, and sandy and rocky shores. SDATL maps classify large areas of this strip as natural coast to be preserved, ecological green corridor, and public beaches. These classifications require public authorities to protect the natural character of the shoreline and prevent its conversion into dense urban clusters or concrete structures that cause breaks in the coastal system.

Findings from the Environmental Resources Monitoring in Lebanon report of 2012 show that this coast contains sensitive habitats, including rocky reefs, coastal dunes, river mouths, and wetland systems. Marine sediments in the south show levels of heavy metals linked to human activity, including sources tied to environmental shocks caused by military actions. The report also notes a drop in water quality due to landfilling and unregulated urban expansion. Marine studies from 2021 confirm the continued ecological value of the southern coast as feeding grounds and active nesting sites, and as habitat for species facing extinction risk, including Caretta caretta and Chelonia mydas. Recorded activity of sharks and marine mammals reflects the richness of this coast. The sea caves of Naqoura form suitable habitat for the return of the Mediterranean monk seal Monachus monachus, with scattered sightings in recent years in regional research records. This shows that the southern shoreline remains part of a natural habitat network in the eastern Mediterranean.

The southern coast also holds cultural and historical value linked to the sea. It hosts significant archaeological sites, including Sidon, Tyre, Sarepta Sarafand, Adloun, and Umm el-Amed. These sites appear in the national archaeological inventory and form part of Lebanon’s Mediterranean identity. SDATL indicates that preserving the link between these sites and the sea is necessary to protect their heritage value. Any shoreline alteration or landfilling affects them directly.

SDATL assigns specific importance to public marine spaces, especially open waterfronts that form part of the natural public domain. The plan obliges public authorities to preserve these areas as shared space that secures habitat continuity and prevents enclosure or privatization. Green Southerners sees the protection of these areas as a basic condition for securing ecological stability along the coast and for safeguarding safe public access to the beach.

For the stretch between Adloun and Naqoura, the plan classifies it as a single coastal-agricultural ecological unit. It requires strict limits on any urban development and blocks high-density projects or landfilling that change the nature of the coastal plain. The plan describes this stretch as one of the last remaining natural coastal systems in Lebanon, with visual and ecological continuity that must stay intact.

Based on this reality, the organisation follows a scientific method grounded in field observation, data collection, and analysis of physical and ecological change. This approach supports accurate assessments that follow national and international standards. Green Southerners also holds long experience in the southern coastal system, supported by years of monitoring ecological threats and documenting field conditions with precision.

From this perspective, the organisation worked on strengthening site designation and protection. It prepared classification files for Adloun in 2015 and Abbassiyeh in 2016. Abbassiyeh Beach Reserve was approved in May 2020 based on the organisation’s proposal. The organisation also submitted the 2015 file to classify Adloun as a natural and cultural reserve due to its ecological, archaeological, and geomorphological value. It also follows programmes related to the protection of the Naqoura coast and supports the designation processes for Qlaileh and Mansouri as community-led protected areas for nesting beaches and wetland systems.

Since its establishment, Green Southerners has carried out extensive field and legal interventions to protect the southern coast from environmental and urban violations. During 2024–2025, it monitored works at the Shawakir site in Tyre, next to the Tyre Coast Nature Reserve, and objected to activities that altered the shoreline and affected connected wetland systems. It followed the file of Jammal Beach in Tyre in 2020 after works that did not match the natural coastal character. In 2023, it objected to interventions on Iskandarouna Beach in Naqoura due to its ecological importance. In the field of nesting-site protection, the organisation opposed activities inconsistent with the function of Mansouri Beach and monitored harmful works on Qlaileh Beach in 2025. From 2022 to 2025, it monitored unsound works on Abbassiyeh Beach and intervened to stop them with the Ministry of Environment.

In 2021, the organisation led a clean-up operation after the oil spill that hit Abbassiyeh and Adloun. The effort lasted more than two months and included scientific documentation of pollutants in line with ERML findings on heavy metals and coastal risks. In cultural-environmental protection, it worked with the Directorate-General of Antiquities in 2017 to protect the funerary caves of Anssariyeh. In 2016, it monitored works that threatened the Adloun archaeological site and succeeded in preventing damage to parts of its rock-marine layers. It then filed a request to list portions of the site in the national inventory.

In parallel, the organisation monitored illegal fishing and tracked violations with the relevant ministries. In 2021, it implemented the “Environmental Fisher” project funded by CFLI to promote sustainable fishing, protect marine biodiversity, and support fishers.

The organisation stresses that coastal protection depends on the link between ecological, geomorphological, and cultural elements. The southern coast forms an integrated system. Any landfilling, unregulated expansion, or alteration of wetlands weakens its structure and harms sensitive marine species, including sea turtles and the monk seal. The organisation calls for halting violations, restoring degraded habitats, and strengthening consistent environmental monitoring. It also calls for joint management that involves municipalities, local communities, and relevant ministries to secure compliance with binding environmental and planning regulations.

It also maintains an independent scientific position based on objective assessments free from investment influence.

As part of its social responsibility, the organisation works to expand public awareness of coastal ecology.

Green Southerners sees the southern coast as one of the last Lebanese shorelines that still holds near-continuous natural features. Losing this stretch would be an ecological and cultural loss with no replacement. The organisation promotes a vision based on protecting the shoreline as open public space, blocking projects that alter the natural coastal plain or break ecological continuity, strengthening legal protection for coastal heritage sites, and supporting local communities and fishers in adopting practices that secure the long-term health of marine resources.

Economic Vision: Protecting the Coast as an Asset for Local Communities

Green Southerners views coastal protection as the most sustainable investment for the future of local economies. Pollution, landfilling, and privatization are illegal acts that weaken ecological systems and threaten fish stocks. These pressures harm fishers and the economies of coastal towns. Ecotourism and cultural tourism in the region depend on protecting open beaches and archaeological sites along the southern coast.

The organisation’s economic approach includes:

• Sustainable fishing: Reduce pollution, stop landfilling and privatization, and protect fish stocks to support fishers.
• Ecological and cultural tourism: Support tourism built on protected beaches and coastal heritage sites such as Tyre and Adloun.
• Strengthening ecotourism: Develop activities that align with ecological protection and habitat recovery, including turtle monitoring, nest-season protection, conditions that support monk seal stability, environmental guiding, and coastal hiking such as the Southern Coast Trail initiative.
• Supporting traditional activities: Protect river mouths and wetlands to support organic and local food production. Strengthen sustainable fishing.
• Stakeholder engagement: Link coastal and heritage protection to projects that secure revenue for local communities so that environmental and cultural resources stay open and shared.