By Assad Serhal
Director General, Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon (SPNL)
Whenever we speak about the revival of the Hima, two questions almost always follow. They come from citizens, organizations, academics, universities and, especially, municipalities interested in protecting their natural heritage.
“What is the difference between a nature reserve—a mehmieh—and a Hima?”
Then, often before we have finished answering: “How can we get involved and help establish one?”
Our new publication, Hima: Nature Protection Through Community Partnership, was prepared to answer these questions. It brings together the thinking behind the Hima and the practical steps needed to turn a community’s interest into an organized commitment to conservation. It is a guide for Lebanon, but also an invitation to any country interested in learning from the Lebanese experience.
For me, its publication is a moment to reflect on how far this journey has taken us—and on the responsibility that comes with its next chapter.
When SPNL began reviving the Hima in 2004 at Ebel Al Saqi in southern Lebanon, we were reconnecting with a tradition rooted in this region’s relationship with land, water and shared resources. We believed that this heritage could help answer a contemporary challenge: how to protect biodiversity while strengthening the communities whose lives depend on it.
More than two decades later, that belief has become a growing partnership among municipalities, local residents, national institutions, scientists and international conservation organizations.
The difference begins with how we care for a place
A nature reserve and a Hima share a fundamental purpose: protecting nature. They are complementary approaches, and Lebanon needs both.
In Lebanon, nature reserves operate within a formal legal framework, with designated management arrangements and restrictions intended to safeguard ecosystems and species. The Hima places particular emphasis on community stewardship: people participate in defining how their land and resources should be protected, used and passed on.
This does not mean that nature reserves cannot involve communities, or that a Hima permits unrestricted use. Lebanon’s protected areas legislation allows certain sustainable activities in nature reserves under specified conditions. Within a Hima, resource use must likewise remain consistent with conservation. The distinction concerns the approach to governance and stewardship, rather than a simple division between exclusion and access.
A Hima asks a community to consider difficult, practical questions. Where can grazing take place without damaging regeneration? Which habitats need seasonal protection? How should water be shared? How can farming, walking trails and local production support livelihoods without exhausting the landscape?
Its strength lies in bringing these decisions closer to the people who know the place and will live with their consequences. Traditional knowledge and scientific evidence must inform one another. Community participation must come with clear responsibilities, fair rules and the ability to uphold them.
Lebanon gave this approach an important place in national legislation through Protected Areas Law No. 130 of 2019, which recognizes Hima alongside nature reserves, natural parks, and natural sites or landmarks. This was a major step in connecting local stewardship with national conservation policy.
Turning interest into action
The most useful part of the playbook may be its “Golden 10”: a practical sequence that takes a municipality from the first conversation with SPNL towards an operational Hima.
The process begins with assessing the proposed site together and preparing maps of its boundaries and land uses. It then moves through drafting and adopting a municipal Hima decision, forming a representative committee, appointing a coordinator, developing a management and action plan, training the Homat Al Hima team, introducing the Doroub Al Hima trails programme, and preparing an initial project proposal to mobilize support.
These steps make clear that establishing a Hima requires more than announcing a protected area. It requires agreement about who will do the work, how decisions will be made, what resources are needed and how progress will be assessed.
Identifying a suitable site is itself a serious undertaking. Ecological importance, land ownership and use, community priorities, existing pressures and connections with surrounding habitats all matter. The process depends on patient cooperation, from the village level to government authorities and international partners.
A municipal decision opens the door. The work that follows gives it meaning.
A Lebanese experience with international relevance
The international recognition of community conservation has helped carry this experience beyond Lebanon.
At the 2012 World Conservation Congress in Jeju, IUCN adopted Resolution WCC-2012-Res-092, supporting community resource management and conservation. It explicitly recognized Al-Hima among traditional systems that connect local knowledge, culture and heritage with conservation and livelihoods.
Our partnership with BirdLife International has also connected Hima stewardship with the protection of Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas. This relationship brings together the scientific identification of priority habitats and the local partnerships needed to care for them.
More recently, SPNL has reported UNESCO encouragement for applying the Hima approach to biosphere reserves and geoparks across the Levant. Our work towards a proposed Beirut River Valley Biosphere Reserve reflects that ambition: linking local conservation with a wider landscape approach to research, education and sustainable development.
The playbook also records 27 Lebanese Himas listed in the World Database on Protected Areas. Such visibility helps place the contribution of our communities within the international conservation record.
These milestones are reasons for pride. They also create an obligation to demonstrate that recognition is matched by effective management on the ground.
Beyond the numbers
Today, I congratulate the Lebanese government, the Ministry of Environment and the 63 municipalities that have embraced Hima through municipal decisions. Their commitment is helping safeguard some of Lebanon’s most valuable natural landscapes. With another 25 Himas in the pipeline, there is an opportunity to deepen and expand this work.
Our contribution belongs within the ambition of the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and its “30 by 30” target. That target calls for the effective conservation of at least 30% of terrestrial and inland water areas, and of marine and coastal areas, globally by 2030. It also requires ecological connectivity, equitable governance and respect for local communities.
These qualities must guide our progress. We should ask whether habitats are recovering, whether communities benefit fairly, whether rules are respected and whether the people responsible for management have the support they need.
The next phase must therefore invest as seriously in people and institutions as it does in expanding the network.
The people who make a Hima live
The Homat Al Hima—our Hima guardians and champions—are central to this task. Young people need training, practical experience and opportunities to lead. Their contribution can extend from biodiversity monitoring and environmental education to trail management, community dialogue and local enterprise.
Women must be at the forefront of this work. Souk Al Hima offers an important space for women’s production, knowledge and economic participation, but women’s leadership must extend throughout Hima governance. They should help shape management plans, resource decisions, conservation priorities and the distribution of benefits.
A community cannot realize its full capacity while overlooking the knowledge and leadership of half its members.
The same principle applies to cooperation between communities. Climate change and pressures on water, energy and food security make shared resource management increasingly urgent. A river connects villages whether or not their institutions work together. Conservation gives them a practical reason to do so.
In the Beirut River Valley, our ongoing work with the Ministry of Environment, MESD and 18 communities is helping build that cooperation. Doroub Al Hima creates opportunities to connect landscapes, local livelihoods and people across municipal boundaries. The wider effort benefits from European Union and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation support, while advancing the ambition of Lebanon’s first natural park and the proposed biosphere reserve. The Swiss-supported natural park initiative remains a project working towards declaration.
We must continue documenting what these partnerships achieve, including their contribution to dialogue and the management of shared resources. Evidence will help us improve the work and explain its value to others.
An invitation to begin
My special thanks go to SPNL’s dedicated team and to MESD, led by Ghada Ghazal, for their contribution to this Hima and Homat Al Hima publication series. The forthcoming Doroub Al Hima playbook will help extend the same practical approach to the trails connecting our communities.
I hope this publication will be used around municipal tables, in classrooms, by local organizations and among neighbours discussing the future of their land.
Its success will be measured by what people do after reading it: the meeting they convene, the young people they train, the habitat they protect and the partnership they sustain.
To every municipality asking how to begin, our answer is an invitation: bring your knowledge, your concerns and your commitment. Let us assess the place together and build a plan that your community can carry forward.
The future of the Hima depends on people accepting a shared responsibility for the places they call home.
