[1999] [2000] [2001] [2002] [2003] [2004] [2005] [2006][2007] [2008]
14/12/2002
Infrastructure - Diminuer la pollution et réhabiliter les routes et les trottoirs
L'Orient LE JOUR
Green Line lance sa campagne pour une stratégie du transport terrestre Le secteur des transports au Liban continue de briller par sa désorganisation, plus d'une décennie après la fin de la guerre, ce qui a nécessité une initiative de la société civile pour ouvrir enfin le débat sur ce dossier aux multiples ramifications. L'association écologique Green Line a lancé hier une campagne baptisée « Stratégie nationale pour une gestion du transport terrestre », qui vise à promouvoir une adaptation de ce secteur aux besoins de la population par une amélioration de la gestion et de l'infrastructure, et par une promotion des moyens de transport moins polluants.
12/10/2002
Musa pledges to enforce quarry ban
Critics say influence will dictate permits
Maha Al-Azar
Daily Star
Although the Cabinet decision to shut down quarries was
met with criticism and skepticism, Environment Minister Michel Musa
insisted Friday that the decision would be implemented in full and
that violations would be stopped.
A Cabinet decision issued last week restricted quarrying to four areas in the
Anti-Lebanon mountain range along the border with Syria .
“Only the Cabinet is eligible to examine permits for quarrying outside the
specified areas,” said the Cabinet decree, dated Oct. 7.
23/09/2002
Green group claims public beach in danger
Environmentalists say secret plans to develop Ramlet al-Baida ‘against the
law'
Samar Kanafani
Daily Star
Environmentalist group Green Line warned Sunday
that the capital's last stretch of public beach in Ramlet al-Baida
is destined to be gobbled up by a private resort in violation of
the law and without the knowledge of Beirutis.
In a day-long rally on the beach Sunday, Green Line and other civic associations
protested the privatization of the beach, demanding that the Beirut Municipal
Council, Beirut MPs and concerned ministries take action to halt any development
project.
05/09/2002
Energy caucus blames lack of commitment
Mildred Fernandes
Johannesburg
The international Energy and Climate Caucus, a coalition of non-governmental organizations, yesterday derided the UN Summit for failing to commit world leaders to concrete action plans for reducing the use of fossil fuels and increasing the use of renewable energy.
17/08/2002
Nothing to offer but an empty hand on sustainable
development
Groups say government unprepared for johannesburg summit
Official delegation has no program, and will only be an observer, claim critics
Hala Kilani
Daily Star
Lebanon is going to the Johannesburg summit for sustainable
development empty-handed and will most likely return the same way,
as the official delegation has no sustainable development program and
civil
society participating in the summit is equally ill-prepared, according to nongovernmental
organizations.
16/08/2002
Green activists blast ban on diesel as ‘political'
Measures target ‘service for poor'
Maha Al-Azar
Daily Star
Environmentalists have decried Parliament's decision
to extend the diesel ban to 24-seat buses as a “political” move that
lacks vision.
“The whole issue of the ban is unfair,” said Ali Darwish, who heads Green Line,
a local environmental group. “Either they should ban diesel for all vehicles
or they should allow everyone to use it.”
26/07/2002
Pines felled
Daily Star
Around 60 pine trees were uprooted in the Sin al-Fil
area to make way for a hotel Tuesday. “The trees are more than 100
years old,” said Ali Darwish of Green Line environmental pressure group.
However, Agriculture Ministry official Ghattas Aql told The Daily Star that
the operation is legal as Article 1 of Law 85/92 allows any project that involves
construction to result in the uprooting of trees.
“They are planning to build a hotel there and the law is very clear,” Aql said.
“If anyone wants to build a highway or anything else, he has the right to uproot
trees no matter how old they are on the condition that he plants in the same
area double the number of trees that were uprooted.”
“For example, if they cut 30 trees, they would have to plant 60 other big ones,”
Aql added.
The Metropolitan hotel obtained permission from the Agriculture Ministry to
carry out the operation.
25/07/2002
Environment code launched after 5-year parliamentary
sojourn
Musa announces ‘historic landmark' as polluters and developers now face significantly
heftier penalties
Maha Al-Azar
Daily Star
Polluters and developers now have to answer to the Code
of the Environment, which was finally passed five years after it was
referred to Parliament.
Environment Minister Michel Musa made the announcement during a news conference
held Wednesday at the ministry in Antelias, calling the achievement a “historic
landmark” and a “national accomplishment.”
16/07/2002
Diesel - L'indemnité de 4 millions
payable dans les trois jours suivant la modification du moteur
L'Orient LE JOUR
L'application de la loi 341 aiguise la colère et le désespoir des propriétaires de minibus Harangue antigouvernementale à l'adresse des responsables. « Nous sommes bien libanais ! » semblent dire ces grévistes. Les forces de l'ordre, réfugiées à l'ombre du ring Fouad Chéhab.
07/06/2002
A long hot summer: Beirut public beaches disappear
Municipal Council divided over private ownership
Maha Al-Azar
Daily Star
Rumors of a proposed private marina in Ramlet al-Baida
have environmentalists and beach regulars steaming over the possible
confiscation of the capital's last public stretch of sand and surf.
As the days grow longer and hotter, critics of private beach-property ownership
have argued that Ramlet al-Baida is the only recreational retreat open at no
cost to the capital's 1 million residents.
“The overwhelming majority (of people) cannot afford the high cost of private
beaches, some of whose owners have usurped the Beirut shores in avoidance of
the law,” Beirut Municipal Council member Abdel-Hamid Fakhoury said in a statement
last month.
21/03/2002
Taxi drivers announce proposal to replace diesel
engines
Union chief says plan will not burden state
Sector is confident some 17,000 environmentally damaging vehicles will be converted
to run on gasoline by June if strategy is implemented
19/02/2002
Volunteers head south for reforestation
Environmental group gives urbanites the chance to get their hands dirty
Maha Al-Azar
Daily Star
Combining fun time with productive work is how Green Line, the nonprofit environmental organization, managed to launch a reforestation project in a formerly occupied town in south Lebanon . Over a period of three weeks, the group will tap into urbanites' thirst for escaping into nature, away from the noise and pollution of the capital, to recruit much-needed volunteers for a reforestation project it has launched in collaboration with the Association for Forest Development and Conservation and the funding of the German GTZ organization, which runs a project to combat desertification out of the Agriculture Ministry.
11/02/2002
Activists reforest former occupied town
Daily Star
About 25 volunteers and environmental activists headed
to the formerly occupied southern town of Kfar Houne on Sunday to plant
400 pine trees.
Jointly organized by Green Line and the Association for Forest Development and
Conservation, the project was funded by the German GTZ organization, which
is running a project for combating desertification in Lebanon out of the Agriculture
Ministry.
The trees were planted in a 10,000-hectare plot belonging to the Catholic monastery
of Deir al-Mzeiraa, also a partner in the project.
“GTZ funded about 65 percent of the $10,000 project, while the church footed
15 percent of the bill and Green Line the remaining 20 percent,” said Ali Darwish,
Green Line's president.
“Some areas are riskier than others, due to landmines,” said Darwish in his
assessment of this two-year project.