Partners

https://afdc.maps.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/617cc932a67349608109d819fbee69e8/data 

The Association for Forest Development and Conservation (AFDC), a non-profit and non-governmental organization which origins are located in Ramlieh in the Kaza of Aley, 40 kilometers east of Beirut in the mountains, was established in 1993 to achieve sustainable conservation of nature resources, to raise awareness and to build capacities to contribute to the national efforts for a better environmental management. Fundamental to AFDC’s mission is the pursuit of community-based conservation for the sustainable livelihoods of people. This comes from the idea that conservation will fail if local communities do not benefit from it.

AFDC's objectives include:

• Developing local communities while maintaining conservation and the sustainable management of forests and natural resources.

• Capacity building and public awareness in fields and issues related to the environment and sustainable development.

• Conducting and disseminating studies and research related to different environmental and sustainable development issues.

• Lobbying for changes in environmental and sustainable development policies.

• Encouraging youth involvement and participation in development practices including working towards the establishment of youth centers and hostels.

For further information please visit the website of AFDC at: www.afdc.org.lb

Actual activities from Hanns Seidel Stiftung in cooperation with AFDC:

The focus of the common project is the development and implementation of both the 'National Policy for Environment Education in Lebanon' and 'Environment Education Curricula for the 1st and 2nd cycle' in cooperation with the 'Association for Forests, Development and Conservation - AFDC' and the ‘Center of Research and Development – CERD’. This project has a significant role to play regarding the environmental education in Lebanon, since it was adopted by the ministries of education and environment. AFDC and CERD members supervise and evaluate the environmental education policy and the EE curriculum implementation during trainings and schools visits and follow up. Plans and training sessions as well as the schools, trainers and teacher’s comments and recommendations take into account to properly develop the needed material.

The 'Centre International des Sciences de l'Homme - CISH' aims to study the contemporary human in his relation with nature and society, in addition to a series of questions related to development, dialogue and the culture of peace in the world. And for that, the Center applies a group of specializations and means that fall under the overall title of Humanities and Social Sciences, particularly, sociology, anthropology, history, philosophy, political science, economy, international law, religion sciences and human rights.

The Center devotes considerable efforts to clarify:

• the issues raised by Education, Sciences and Technology
• the relation of human being to the environment
• the coexistence among people coming from different cultures, languages and social systems
• the meeting of ancient and modern civilizations
• peaceful relations among nations
• peace and security maintaining and promoting, in order to insure the harmonious spiritual and material development among human groups, and to achieve social integration, as well as promote the values of tolerance and justice

Activities of Hanns-Seidel-Stiftiung in cooperation with CISH:

Despite the commonalities in Lebanese society, religious affiliation is the dominant social, economic, and political reality. Religious identity is not only an essential and deeply ingrained aspect of the Lebanese society but also a defining feature of the Lebanese political system.

By implementing a series of dialogue workshops all over Lebanon, the Ministry of Culture, the "Centre International des Sciences de l'Homme - CISH" in Byblos and Hanns-Seidel-Stiftung are interested to preserve the spirit of dialogue and tolerance, despite the existing sharp differences.

Participants from different sectors, public and private, parliamentarians, representatives of cities and municipalities, professors from various universities and members from different religious denominations in Lebanon will be addressed by these workshops. Through cooperation with experts in the field of confidence building and conflict resolution, the initiative will contribute to better communication and coexistence in Lebanon.

For more information on the Ministry of Environment:

https://www.moe.gov.lb/

Further information on the Ministry of Social Affairs:

http://www.socialaffairs.gov.lb/MSADefault.aspx

The Women's Association of Deir El Ahmar (WADA), is a Lebanese non-profit non-governmental organization established in 1994. The mission is to promote women's role in rural development and welfare of society in the region around Deir El Ahmar, which is located 100 kilometers northeast of Beirut and 12 kilometers northeast of Baalbek, in the northern part of the Bekaa Valley. WADA was founded by active volunteer women from Deir El Ahmar, among them Mrs. Dunia Baroud El Khoury, the current president of WADA, Mrs. Yvonne El Khoury Lichaa and Mrs. René Chouah Mhanna.

The Strategies

I. Help and support rural women who are the principal target groups through:

• Empowering them to help their families and to increase their income
• Improving their education and so their social level in the society
• Making them aware of their important role in decision making 

II. The empowerment of rural women shall be reached through:

• Training sessions for preparing rural products such as handicrafts and agro-food products
• Establishment of cooperatives which have a better access to micro credits
• Looking for new markets through exhibitions and contacts and e-commerce

III. Elaborate programs to protect the environment and the health through:

• Awareness campaigns
• Creating green areas and botanical garde
• Activities to promote any kind of solid waste treatment
• Promote forms of organic farming
• Supporting farmers ( e.g. Safflower oil extraction )

IV.   Promote Eco-tourism through:

• Studies to improve the knowledge about the great variety of touristic places in the area
• Training sessions for local citizens to serve the tourism sector, to preserve their cultural heritage (folkloric dance, songs, traditions, dresses, handicrafts, traditional food etc)
• Programs to attract visitors and tourists

Actual Hanns Seidel Stiftung in cooperation with WADA implements a project named:

'Building bridges between communities from different religions in the region of Baalbeck - Deir El Ahmar- Yammouneh"  that aims to identify solutions for improving the inter-religious dialogue for a peaceful coexistence, cooperation and solidarity'