Hima: A methodology for Local Involvement in Distinctive Landscape Management

SPNL organized a seminar at the Golden Tulip Serenada Hotel on December.10.2015. The aim of the seminar was to present the results of the work done in the Medscapes project highlighting work package 6 which focuses on the Hima approach as a methodology for Local Involvement in Distinctive Landscape Management. The participants in the seminar were stakeholders from ministries, municipalities of the different Hima sites, private sectors, educational institutions, environmental NGOs, and planning organizations.
The seminar presented the pilot area chosen for Lebanon by SPNL and AUB, the landscape character assessment mapping and its results, the risk assessment results, and the landscape decision support system to be used as a base and a tool for capitalization and special protection and conservation measures needed to be implemented on the Lebanese lands. On the other hand, the participants were given full explanation over the role of the Hima work package in the project, why the Hima was chosen as the participatory approach to be implemented in the project, starting from the regional training done on the Hima participatory framework for the partner countries, the mentoring visits, the adoption of the Hima by two communities from each participating country, namely: Cyprus, Greece, and Jordan, and the planned phase 2 of the project for the
development of fully fledged operational Hima sites in the partner countries.
Mr. Pere Sala from the
Landscape Observatory of Catalonia had wrapped up the session by sharing his experience in Catalonia on the Landscape-related public awareness, education and training, in the Mediterranean which is an added value for the continuation of the project to phase 2.