Effects and Implications of Ecocides in Lebanon: Relevance in State Rebuilding and Stabilisation

This SOAS Middle East Institute and Council for British Research in the Levant collaborative workshop explores the impact of ecocides—here defined as the deliberate destruction of the environment and the ecosystem during conflicts and warfare—in Lebanon.

Ecocides add to political-societal instability and interfere with reconstruction and stabilisation. The workshop examines ecocides through three themes:

• The inter-relations between conflict, warfare and landscape transformation.
• Impact at the level of communities.
• Structural, political and economic implications in the sustainable rebuilding and stabilisation of the country.

The 2006 to 2023/24 Israel-Hezbollah war, marked by relentless airstrikes and unprecedented levels of destruction, has reshaped the country’s social, economic, and political landscape and severely impacted the ecosystem. Deepening the political perspective, after two years of presidential vacancy and an enduring economic and political-systemic crisis, Lebanon is undertaking a fragile transition towards rebuilding the state apparatus and its institutions after the election of Joseph Aoun and Nawaf Salam in 2025.

In this context, this workshop and policy roundtable will examine ecology and the environment as a foundational prism through which to reconsider the processes of the state’s reconstruction. The management and reconstruction of the ecosystem are fundamental to the reconstruction of a post-conflict economic system.

The SOAS Middle East Institute will establish an international network on the above theme by extending it to neighbouring countries in the region. 

Attending this event

Attendance at this workshop is by invitation only and is not open to the public.

Grant holder

Maria Gloria Polimeno