Union of Municipalities in Lebanon as Enablers of Local Economic Development: The Challenge of Land
Within a union of municipalities (UoM) area, public and communal lands and productive, cultural, and natural landscapes constitute a main pillar of the local economy — including sites recognized by the National Physical Master Plan of the Lebanese Territory (NPMPLT) as significant natural sites of national importance.
Thenceforth, the Local Economic Development (LED) assessment process launched by the Municipal Empowerment and Resilience Project (MERP) in partnership with United Cities Lebanon (UCL) /Technical Office for Lebanese Municipalities (BTVL) in the Urban Community Al-Fayhaa, the Federation of Municipalities of the Northern and Coastal Matn and the Union of Tyre Municipalities, developed a growth diagnostic framework that fully integrates territorial planning instead of geography per se as a constraint/enabler of regional economic and social returns generation and, therefore, regional investment and long-term development. The LED assessment is funded by the European Union through its Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian Crisis “Madad Fund”.
The findings in the three unions of poor territorial planning practices, acute absence of comprehensive land use planning, and lack of unified territorial development plans and rapid and unguided urban expansion in the last two decades led MERP to launch an investigation in the first and second quarters of 2022 to better understand how the issue of public land availability and use is impacting local development prospects.
The investigation was designed to understand from the mayors themselves, the challenges they are facing regarding the land-development nexus.
A questionnaire was developed and shared with a number of municipalities which are members in the three targeted UoMs to probe them on the status of public lands (municipal and state-owned) in their respective municipalities and several key informant interviews were held to complement the survey.
While the availability of public (including municipal) and common land assets differs across areas due in part to different land status regime owing to the complexity of the history of the different areas that make up Lebanon today, the main unifying finding is that UoM and municipalities are challenged to (i) protect them from transgressions, (ii) reduce the impact of pollution, and (iii) leverage state and municipal owned lands for vital local development projects (e.g., infrastructure and public services, affordable housing, open markets, municipal gardens) that can potentially enhance the livability of urban and rural areas and stimulate private sector economic activities.
While an immediate response plan addressing critical socio-economic needs in each union is currently an emergency priority on humanitarian and social grounds, from a more strategic perspective, it will be important to prioritize sustainable land management and to protect territorial assets, including public and communal lands, from misuse, neglect, violations, and transgressions in view of their heritage value and importance to social and economic development. While the effective implementation of protection measures to protect agricultural, cultural, and natural lands will require time, some immediate responses could be already envisaged such as encouraging agricultural reclamation which in the current context of looming food crisis is crucial, providing support to small farmers so that they do not leave their land and, investing in hands-on educational program so that people do not leave their lands.
