Picture from RagMag

Azadea Foundation has taken the pledge to rehabilitate and revive the Sanayeh garden, one of Beirut’s oldest and most popular gardens in collaboration with the Municipality of Beirut of course. The new 22,000sqm garden will include an amphitheater, children playgrounds, bicycle and running tracks, promenade lanes, free WIFI among other things. I was present at the roundtable organized by Azadea with the collaboration of Jouzour Loubnan and AFDC (Association for Forests, Development and Conservation) to shed the light on the Sanayeh garden and the growing need to preserve the forest wealth in Lebanon and I got some useful answers on this awesome project.

1- Regarding the management, security and cleanliness of the park, I was re-assured there’s a substantial amount of money just allocated for private security firms and specialized personnel to keep the park safe and clean. That’s great because a lot of Lebanese still litter wherever they go and we wouldn’t want that to happen to Sanayeh. I think on a later stage maybe few years from now, the municipality should fine people who litter or let their dogs poop in the park.

2- The garden will be open to public and for free of course.

3- All the plantations there will be managed by a specialized team and there will be a tag explaining the type of tree planted and other useful information.

I also asked one of the NGO representatives, Dr Magda Bou Dagher Kharrat, whether there’s any place or website that could provide useful information regarding the different kinds of plant species in Lebanon and which species one can grow in his garden or land whether in the city or in the mountains. As it turns out, there’s a website called Lebanon-Flora.org that is aimed at providing “easy access to species information for amateurs, botanists, ecologists and plant geneticists” and sharing “all the recent data and research work on Lebanon plant species from all national and international sources in order to update our knowledge on Lebanon plant species”. The website will be renovated soon but it has already tons of information and a species mapping tool where you could see the types of plants grown in a specific area in Lebanon.

All in all, more companies in Lebanon should take similar initiatives and help build new green spaces for the upcoming generations.