Development near a beach in south Lebanon raises fears a sea turtle nesting ground is in danger

Mona Khalil is worried about preserving heritage.
 
Unlike many Lebanese activists, however, she’s not concerned with hundred-year-old houses. What she’s trying to protect is older. Thousands, if not millions, of years older. 
 
Khalil lives in and runs a small hotel in Mansouri near a 1.4 kilometer stretch of beach that serves as a nesting ground for two endangered species of sea turtle – the Green Turtle and the Loggerhead.
 
She’s having something of a problem with one of her neighbors. A man renting land near the southern end of the beach – whom no one NOW spoke to for this article would identify – recently erected walls on the non-coastal part of his property.
 
He also put several concrete pillars down in the sand, suggesting to Khalil that he wanted to soon build on the beach as well.
 
“The truth is, nobody knows,” Khalil told NOW on Saturday afternoon during a sparsely attended demonstration to ensure the beach – and the turtles that use it to propagate their dwindling species – is protected.
 
On November 28, NOW contacted the municipality of Mansouri to ask what was happening. An employee, who did not provide his name, said the land is private and the owner has a legal permit to renovate his house. The municipal employee told NOW to come down and “see it for yourself.”
 
When NOW arrived on Saturday to see the permit, a secretary – who also did not provide her name – said that the permit was not in the municipality. She said it was approved by the city and sent to Beirut for approval from the Council for Reconstruction and Development.
 
She added that the land owner was not renovating a house – and, indeed, no house stands on the site of the recently built walls – but rather planning to build a seaside resort like many others that illegally dot Lebanon’s coast.
 
In addition to the beach being protected by a regularly flaunted ban on coastal development, it was declared a nature reserve in 2006. Despite these protections, Khalil still worries that development may reach the southern end of the beach.
 
“They can do anything they want, but they have to respect that this is a [nature reserve] and the turtles have been here for 150 million years,” she said, referring to the amount of time sea turtles have swum the earth’s seas, not necessarily how long they’ve been nesting in Mansouri.
 
This particular stretch of sand, dunes, and vegetation is one of several spots in Lebanon where sea turtles come to lay their eggs. For nearly 15 years, Khalil – aided by friends, family, volunteers, and hotel guests – has been studying and caring for the nests and babies. She flags new nests, covers them with a metal screen to protect from predators, and counts eggs laid and hatched.
 
Khalil and her sister, Amal, fear a development on the beach would adversely impact the sea turtles.
 
With development on the beach seemingly stalled at the moment – Amal Khalil told NOW that the man renting the land removed metal wiring that strung the concrete pillars together after her sister complained – the sisters Khalil are being vigilant and trying to raise awareness by hosting events like Saturday’s protest.
 
During the hour and a half NOW was on the beach, only around 15 people had come to express solidarity despite the 251 people saying they were “going” on Facebook. The meager showing upset Albert Zakhia, 49, who travelled nearly the entire length of Lebanon to attend from his home in Zgharta.
 
“I came all this way to help save the turtles,” he told NOW before venting about his countrymen.
 
“The Lebanese people are lazy people,” he said. “They like to talk and discuss a lot, but when it’s time for action, nobody shows.”
https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/reportsfeatures/523387-another-threat-to-endangered-sea-turtles