On March 29, 2018, SPNL organized a meeting with the community in Shimlan in collaboration with the Professor Architect Maria Gabriella Trovato and her students at the Architect & Landscape Department in the American University of Beirut (AUB).
More than 30 people, representatives of public administration and members of the society as whole attended the meeting/workshop which aimed to stipulate debate among the various attendees on the landscape of Shimlan.
Ms. Jamal Hamzeh of SPNL and Mr. Issam Hitti, Shimlan mayor started the meeting by welcoming everyone.
Ms. Hamzeh presented SPNL and its different programs including the initiation of Hima Kayfoun that remarks the first Hima in Mount Lebanon and how Shimlan and the various neighboring villages can benefit and get engaged in the different conservational, educational, and ecotourism activities planned for the area. The potential of ecotourism opportunities and highlights in the village in addition to the delineation of different hiking trails between Kayfoun and Shimlan villages were also discussed.
Afterward, the students presented their work to make the attendees aware of the landscape elements identified in their village and at a later stage working groups were organized in order to share knowledge, gather information from the community and individuate common values, threats, and opportunities for Shimlan Landscape.
