Writer Catherine Cartier published a report accompanied by a video on the environmental reality in the Shouf region, inhabited by the Druze Unitarian community as well as Christians and Muslims, discussing the Lebanese Environment Forum headed by Sheikh Nizam Abou Khizam, and its role in environmental education and recycling.
Sheikh Abou Khizam, who founded the Lebanese Environment Forum in 1999, says: “We cannot live without each other. The Christians in the Shouf and the Druze are very similar, and how we live daily life.”
For his part, the director of the Shouf Cedar Reserve, Nizar Hani, spoke about the challenges facing the environment, saying: “In order to be able to protect this natural heritage, we need to preserve the Mediterranean mosaic as it is, so that we do not allow construction to destroy forests and agriculture.”
The writer continues: “Outside the reserve, the Shrine of Prophet Job overlooks the cedar trees. Although Druze sheikhs oversee the place, it is considered sacred by Islamic sects and Christians, and worshippers believe that the strawberry tree behind the shrine healed Job of his illness.”
She adds, “Visitors come from Lebanon and from all over the world to the Shouf to walk in the shadows of the cedar trees.”
