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Since its establishment in 1984, the Environment
Protection Committee (EPC), which deals with all
aspects of environment, strives to put the palm
islands under the protection of the law because
of its biodiversity importance. On March, 9th
1992, the parliament issued a law declaring the
Palm, Sanani and Ramkine islands a nature
reserve, and forming a committee of
volunteers appointed by the Ministry of
Environment to manage the reserve and to
encourage studies and scientific research, which
was known later as the Government Appointed
Committee (GAC).
On November 15th,
the Protected Areas Project in Lebanon started its work at the
Ministry of Environment (MOE), aiming at the protection of
endangered wild life and building capacity of government and
non-governmental institutions.
The Palm Islands Nature
Reserve is situated at 5.5 km from the shore of Tripoli / El-Mina;
its overall area (including 500m of sea surrounding the islands) is
about 4.2 Kmē.
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Palm Island
The area of this island is
180769 mē; it is composed of two parts, a rocky extending from
Northwest to the South with a highest elevation of 6m on seaside,
and a sandy part extending from the North to the East. The island
includes the remains of a Crusade’s Church (13th
century), old Salinas and fresh water well.
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Ramkine Island
Its area is 34903mē
situated at 600m Northwest of Palm Island, and it is mostly rocky with
small sandy areas at its edges. The island contains a lighthouse
(which is working nowadays on clean solar energy), underground
galleries and cannon emplacements that date back to the French mandate
period.
Sanani Island
The area of this island is
45503mē and is situated at 500m Southeast of Palm Island; it is square
in shape, mostly rocky, except for a small sandy shore. It seems that
it was given the name Sanani because the White Sea birds line on top
of its rocks at sunset giving it a toothed shape, or because it has
toothed rocks.
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Importance of the
Reserve
The importance of the
reserve is mainly due to its biodiversity, i.e., what it encloses of
species of fauna and flora as well as habitats and ecosystems, it also
represents a resting area for rare and globally endangered migratory
birds such as White-tailed Sea Eagle Haliaetus albicilla, Audouin’s
Gull Larus audouini and Corncrake Crex crex, during its passage or its
wintering. Also, its sandy shore is considered one of the few
remaining areas for the nesting of the globally endangered marine
turtles such as the Green Turtle Chelonia mydas and the Loggerhead
Turtle Caretta caretta. It also hosts in its caves the Mediterranean
Monk seal Monachus monachus that is the sixth mammal on the list of
globally endangered species. As for its flora, it contains medicinal
plants and other rare and endemic species. But the remarkable is that
the surrounding submerged area of the reserve, whether it is
herbaceous, sandy or rocky with crevices, is considered as unique
ground for spawning fish and sponges.
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Sanani Island
The area of this island is
45503mē and is situated at 500m Southeast of Palm Island; it is square
in shape, mostly rocky, except for a small sandy shore. It seems that
it was given the name Sanani because the White Sea birds line on top
of its rocks at sunset giving it a toothed shape, or because it has
toothed rocks.
Importance of the
Reserve
The importance of the
reserve is mainly due to its biodiversity, i.e., what it encloses of
species of fauna and flora as well as habitats and ecosystems, it also
represents a resting area for rare and globally endangered migratory
birds such as White-tailed Sea Eagle Haliaetus albicilla, Audouin’s
Gull Larus audouini and Corncrake Crex crex, during its passage or its
wintering. Also, its sandy shore is considered one of the few
remaining areas for the nesting of the globally endangered marine
turtles such as the Green Turtle Chelonia mydas and the Loggerhead
Turtle Caretta caretta. It also hosts in its caves the Mediterranean
Monk seal Monachus monachus that is the sixth mammal on the list of
globally endangered species. As for its flora, it contains medicinal
plants and other rare and endemic species. But the remarkable is that
the surrounding submerged area of the reserve, whether it is
herbaceous, sandy or rocky with crevices, is considered as unique
ground for spawning fish and sponges.
The Palm Island Nature
Reserve Islands are also distinguished for the variety of medicinal
and beehive plants that it has.
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Birds
The islands are
distinguished by being the only place in Lebanon that has nesting sea
birds (Yellow-Legged Gull) and that is because it is away from hunting
and urban pressure. Also there are nine other species that nest on the
islands such as Hoopoe Upupa epops, Graceful Warbler Prinia gracilis,
Tawny Pipit Anthus campestris, and white Wagtail Motacilla Alba…
As
for migratory and wintering species, there are about 156 species, 41
of which continue their route to nest on the Lebanese mainland. Worthy
to say is that the chaos on the islands before it was declared a
reserve, resulted in the disappearance of four species of birds that
used to nest on them and these are: Audouin’s Gull Larus audouinii,
Lesser crested Tern Sterna bengalensis, common Tern Stern hirundo and
the Little Tern Sterna albifrons, that is normal because the islands
are characterized wherever they are by a fragile ecosystem.
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But after the
conservation, two of these species have returned to the islands
these are: Audouin’s Gull and Common Tern. And it is hoped that other
two species will return if conservation continues according to the
management and action plans set for this purpose.
Protection Objectives
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Protection and Management of marine
and insular systems to ensure the long-term
viability of the reserve’s constituent’s and to
conserve its natural resources.
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Protecting threatened, rare,
endangered, or unknown species, populations and
communities and, in particular preserving
habitats considered critical for the survival of
such species.
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Protecting and managing areas of
significance to the lifecycles of economically
important species, such as medicinal plants
areas and predator bird areas that play the most
important role in the food chain.
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Preventing outside activities from
detrimentally affecting the marine protected
areas, such as land and sea pollution sources as
well as human misuse.
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Clarifying the marine ecosystem,
i.e., clarifying and explaining the relationship
between living creatures and the physical and
chemical environment, including the islands for
protection, education and tourism purposes.
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Accommodating within appropriate
management regimes a broad spectrum of human
activities compatible with the primary goal in
marine settings, such as areas for swimming,
recreation and scientific research without
affecting the environment.
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Putting adjacent sea and land-use
practices, such as fishing and diving, under
scientific research, training and monitoring.
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Conserving the principal ecological
processes between constituents of the island
environment in order to insure balance between
these constituents and the benefit of human
beings.
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Preserving, protecting and managing
historical, educational and educational sites.
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Ensuring that activities carried out
within the protected islands are economically
and biologically sustainable.
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Capacity building of management
personal.
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Improving and developing resources
monitoring and field research capacity in the
protected area.
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Developing and implementing zoning on
the islands for multiple use management.
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Developing understanding among
decision-makers, educators, economists,
scientists, local inhabitants around protected
areas and the need for conservation and
sustainable development of biodiversity.
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Capacity building in the local
community for a collaborative management.
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Restoring degraded lands and
protecting fragile ecosystems to enhance
biodiversity.
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Increasing benefits to local
inhabitants in the area surrounding the
protected islands especially through revenues
generated from environmental tourism and the
increase in fish population due to the
conservation of their breeding areas in the
vicinity of the reserve.
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Conservation of the migratory routes
and the endangered species of birds such as the
Great White Pelican, Pelecanus onocrotalus,
Greater Flamingo, Phoenicopterus rubber, Geese
species Anser spp., Corncake Crex crex,
White-tailed Sea Eagle, Haliaetus albicilla and
the Great Snipe Gallinago media…etc.
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Undertaken activities
by the
Environment Protection
Committee (EPC) and the GAC
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The EPC and the GAC, under the
patronage of the Ministry of
Environment (MOE), United Nations
Development Program (UNDP) and with
the technical help of the World
Conservation Union (IUCN),
implemented the following
activities:
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Cleaning the islands from litter
brought to the shore by water currents.
This, with the help of scout and
volunteers, is an ongoing activity since
the currents don’t stop from bringing
garbage to the reserve islands.
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Cleaning the islands from the remains
of the previous wars. The engineering
department in the Lebanese army has
finished the work on removing the bombs
buried in the sand of the Palm Island. |
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Constructing docks to facilitate
landing of visitors on the islands (ongoing)
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Development of research areas on the
Palm Island.
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Development of areas for strict
protection.
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Assignment of areas for visitors to
rest and to enjoy the reserve resources.
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Development of a management plan to
insure sustainable development of natural
resources. (completed with the help of IUCN and
MOE)
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Conduct scientific research with the
contribution of national scientists.
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Construction of defined trails for
visitors.
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Cleaning water well from residues and
constructing an artificial winter pond.
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Re-operating the navigation light on
Ramkine Island with the help of the Ministry of
Transport, keeping its old nature and using the
solar energy to reduce pollution.
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Promoting eco-tourism.
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Development of a plan to encourage
the tourism boats to work in specified areas and
times.
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Implementing the landscape of the
reserve (ongoing).
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Development of a programmed action
plan that allows visitors o enjoy swimming in
specified areas and time periods.
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Providing scientific tours for school
students and bird watchers.
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Providing part of the sandy shore
that will be sterilized periodically to be used
as a cure for rheumatism.
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Development of programs for
environmental awareness and education on the
islands and outside as well as putting
signboards containing guidelines and valuable
scientific information
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Being away from pollution and noise, it is a
recreational site for people where the
snow-capped Mount Lebanon viewed from Palm
Island’s sandy beach is considered a
nationally unique view and where the clear
and clean water is only disturbed by the
voice of the waves that crash on the white
clean sand.
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