The Lebanese University - Faculty of Agronomy, in cooperation with the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Montpellier (IAMM), concluded a four-day training in Baalbek, within the framework of the Agricultural and Rural Development Program (ARDP), funded by the European Union and implemented by the Faculty and the Municipality of Baalbek.

The training focused on good practices in forest management, planning and cultivation with the participation of the Tunisian trainer, Professor Ali Ferchichi.

The Mayor of Baalbek, Brigadier General Hussein Lakkis stressed the importance of the training and the need for serious and continuous work to increase green areas and establish natural reserves, to improve the environmental situation in Lebanon in general and in the northern Beqaa in particular.

The training supervisor, Dr. Salem Darwish of the Faculty of Agriculture at the Lebanese University, explained the objectives of the training and its importance.

The training included seminars, discussions and recommendations on the state of forests in Lebanon and the southern Mediterranean and their non-wood products, and how to improve, develop and protect them, and the  participants emphasized the necessity of forests and their organization, the importance of continuous afforestation, and the economic viability of aromatic and medicinal plants.

The training was concluded with field visits to the reforestation site of real-estate reserve 101 and the forest nursery of the Ministry of Agriculture in Deir El Ahmar.