Individual Consultant - Agriculture, Forests and Rangeland Management Specialist

The lands bordering the Mediterranean Sea in southern Europe, North Africa, and Western Asia constitute the Mediterranean Basin Ecoregion and share a climate characterized by generally mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers. The Mediterranean Basin’s mosaic of Mediterranean forests, woodlands and scrub are home to 22,500 endemic vascular plant species. The Ecoregion counts as one of the world’s most endangered; only 4% of the original vegetation remains intact as human induced pressures, including overgrazing, deforestation and conversion of lands for pasture, agriculture, and urban areas have caused widespread land degradation. Formerly these lands were largely cloaked by forests and woodlands, but heavy human use has reduced much of the area to sclerophyll shrublands. Conservation International has listed the Mediterranean Basin as one of the world’s 34 biodiversity hotspots.

 

Lebanon, which has a total land area of 10,452 km², lies entirely within the Mediterranean Basin Ecoregion. Situated east of the Mediterranean Sea, it stretches 210km along the coast and 50km inland. The population is estimated at 3.8 to 4.0 million with an estimated annual growth rate of 1.2%. The population is unevenly distributed across the country with more than 90% living in urban areas. 300,000 people (8% of the population) are considered extremely poor, with 28.5% considered relatively poor. Lebanon is a service-based economy, the service sector accounting for almost 70% of GDP and industry for 18%. Agriculture in Lebanon is the third most important sector in the country. It contributes 7% to the country’s GDP and employs 15% of the population.

 

Forty percent of Lebanon is arid and semi-arid, 20% is dry-sub-humid and 40% is sub-humid and humid. 25% of the land is under agriculture (248,000ha, which 144,000ha is irrigated), 13% is under forests (from a historic coverage of 74%), 7% is abandoned, 52% is rangeland or rocky and uncultivated (400,000 ha is considered prime rangeland) and 3% is built-up. Most of the country’s forests are located in two mountain ranges, Mount Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon massif. These ranges are considered as the ‘water towers’ of Lebanon as they provide crucial water provisioning services and quality regulation services vital to the economy. They are also critical in sustaining the country’s rich aquatic biodiversity endowment.

 

The use of water resources in Lebanon is approaching unsustainable levels, with agriculture accounting for two-thirds of the total water demand. The seasonal disparity between the wet period (winter) and the growing season (Spring to Autumn) coupled with inadequate storage capacity has led to excessive and largely uncontrolled withdrawal of groundwater for irrigation in the hot dry summer. The unsustainable use of water is mirrored by the unsustainable use of land. Across much of the country, landscapes face moderate to severe deforestation and overgrazing pressures, corresponding in high rates of erosion, increasing soil salinity, lowered soil fertility, and loss of biodiversity. Both trends are linked to unsustainable production practices. Degradation is undermining ecosystem functions and services and the welfare of rural people dependent upon these services for their subsistence and for their livelihoods.   Amongst the areas suffering from these pressures, the Qaroun Watershed stands out because of the adverse implications land degradation there has for national development.

The project is designed to engineer a paradigm shift from unsustainable to sustainable land management in the Qaroun Watershed. Ranked as Lebanon’s most important watershed, this area is a critical source of water for urban use and food production. Notwithstanding this significance, the watershed suffers from accelerating land degradation, which is undermining ecosystem functions and derivative services. Land degradation is attributable to historic deforestation, excessive firewood collection, overgrazing, expansion of urban settlements, and inappropriate infrastructure placement. The project will promote an integrated approach towards fostering sustainable land management – seeking to balance environmental management with development needs. Amongst other things, it will set-up a multi-sector planning platform to balance competing environmental, social and economic objectives in district development plans and associated investments. In doing so, it will reduce conflicting land-uses and improve the sustainability of land management so as to maintain the flow of vital ecosystem services and sustain the livelihoods of local and downstream communities. The platform will be underpinned by a robust decision support system—including a Strategic Environmental Assessment, and monitoring framework so as to inform the planning process, development investments and enforcement. This will provide a system for determining where development should be avoided (in the most ecologically sensitive areas), where and how impacts should be reduced, and where and how land should be rehabilitated. Further, the project will adapt land use practices in different economic sectors – testing new management measures, as needed to reduce environmental stressors. The project advances the strategic objectives of the UNCCD 10-year strategic plan namely: 1) To improve the living conditions of affected populations; 2) To improve the condition of affected ecosystems; 3) To generate global benefits through effective implementation of the UNCCD. It addresses the following operational objectives of the 10-year UNCCD Strategic Plan: 1) Advocacy; 2) Science, technology and knowledge; 3) Capacity-building; and 4) Financing and technology transfer.

 

This project will have two main components:

Under the leadership of the Team Leader and the overall guidance of the Head of the Environment Portfolio in the UNDP Lebanon Country Office, and in collaboration with other members of the Project Preparation Team, the Agriculture, Forests and Rangeland Management Specialist will assume the lead responsibility for the forests, agriculture and rangeland elements of the project preparation activities leading up to and including the Project Document and other documentation. With reference to the PPG, the Specialist is expected to focus on three tasks under Activity 3, namely, (i) Identification and confirmation of the target areas for improved management of production rangelands (20,000ha), (ii) Identification and confirmation of the target areas of forested land (10,500hectares) that will be upgraded in conservation status,  and, (iii) Identification and confirmation of the target areas of arable land covering 40,000ha where pesticides and fertilizer pollution reduction will be addressed.