Kfardebian
The Kfardebian planting sites are growing in many different locations (near Jonction ski slope, near Warde, near La Cabane and in Al Midane) along the road leading from Kfardebiane - Mzaar to the neighboring village of Aakoura, on rocky hills.
It is next to a ski resort on a popular ATV route, in a highly touristic location. This area is also frequently used for bird hunting and hiking. This region is characterized by cold winters and dry and hot summers. It suffers from overgrazing and potentially damaging touristic activities (ATV, ski-doo, hunting...).
In 1999, the Municipality of Kfardebian fenced and planted, under the patronage of General Michel Sleiman, a large number of Cedar trees on a 10.000 m2 of municipal land. Unfortunately, due to lack of maintenance, the Cedar trees were made food to sheep and goats.
In 2008, Jouzour Loubnan rehabilitated the fence, planted 570 cedar trees, 250 of them over 1m high to ensure high visibility for the project, and installed a drip irrigation system.
After testing eight different tree species in 2007, the rocky site was only suitable for Cedrus libani and Juniperus excelsa. During this period, we also started running tests to develop our plantation protocols and define optimized methodologies.
Jouzour Loubnan signed an agreement with the municipality of Kfardebian, whereby they will not deliver any permit for the coming 99 years.
Also, the fenced area has recovered a wide range of its fauna and flora, biodiversity, which had no chance of survival before the birth of this project. More than 40 plant species were identified, some of which are endemic to Lebanon like Vinca libanotica, Acantholimon libanoticum, Puschkinia scilloides libanotica, Berberis libanotica.