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Sustainable development model in Batlun, Shuf

9-6-2020

On June 8, Al Akhbar drew attention to a new agricultural model in the Shuf town of Batlun integrating organic farming, rational waste management and alternative tourism or ecotourism. According to mayor Marwan Kais, the idea came up in 2016 by the Lebanese House Establishment for the Environment (LHEE) and a group of town women who developed a strategy that included a comprehensive survey of Batlun. This, Kais explained, has coincided with Sukleen, the waste management company, ending its services in the Shuf area and another replacing it. The latter has provided some 100 public garbage sorting containers to encourage household waste sorting at the source. In turn, Baruk Cedar Forest or Reserve delivered around 500 chickens with 20 cages to help reduce the size of organic waste. To this effect, Kais said, Batlun successfully managed to cut its accumulative waste management bill from USD 165,000 in 2015 to LBP 110 million in 2018 as a result of waste sorting, the conversion of food residuals into organic fertilizers and the re-selling of cardboard and glass to recycling centers. On the agricultural front, Kais said he anticipated that before long there will be a market for farmers to sell their produce directly to the consumer away from dealers’ and wholesalers’ influence. On the other hand, the environment activist, Munzer Bou Wadi, boasted that Batlun has braced itself to become a station for alternative tourism, and a station has been launched to accommodate nature walks from the village to Maaser Shuf, Botmeh and Khreibeh along the woodlands. (Al Akhbar, June 8, 2020)

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