Lebanon looks to sustainable agriculture
A Lebanese association, SOILS, is working to implement permaculture to help farmers develop sustainable, diversified and environmentally friendly long-term production.
Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren developed the concept of permaculture in 1978 as a creative design process bringing together knowledge, culture, habitats, and human and agricultural systems in the creation of a natural ecosystem. In 2014, the organization SOILS: Permaculture Association Lebanon began implementing permaculture in the Lebanese countryside through workshops and other training for farmers and garden lovers.
Rita Khawand, a former actress, co-founded the SOILS community after winning a social entrepreneurship competition organized by the nongovernmental organizations Arcenciel and Beyond Reform & Development. Its purpose is to develop a more sustainable environment based on the cohesion of various elements.
Permaculture, which includes agriculture and permanent or sustainable culture, is a design science that brings together knowledge and culture, habitats and human agricultural systems. It employs principles of ecology and knowledge of traditional societies to ethically and responsibly reproduce the diversity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems. According to Khawand, permaculture is necessary in Lebanon “to create, through a thoughtful and efficient conception, human communities that respect nature and man.”
Fadi Kanso, a Lebanese agricultural scientist, studied permaculture in Germany. Thinking that Lebanon really needs to reconsider the way it practices agriculture, he became a trainer at SOILS.
