Chouf Cedars Reserve teams up with goats and their masters to protect greenery
The Daily Star
March 02, 2007
By Maher Zeineddine
Daily Star correspondent
CHOUF: Administrators of the Chouf Cedars Nature Reserve have struck a deal with local goatherds in an effort to protect the area's vegetation. Grazing will now be conducted outside the reserve and according to strict schedules and in specific regions, in an attempt to prevent deforestation and limit notorious and all-too-frequent brush fires.
Goats are well known to be rabid eaters, and willing to eat just about anything.
The administrators of the reserve realized recently that the depletion of vegetation in the area was not caused by goats grazing, but with the haphazard manner in which the herders fed their animals.
Shepherds will be permitted to graze their herds at specific locations on the outskirts of the reserve, but not inside the protected area.
"This way, everyone benefits from this newly established friendship between the goats and the forest," one goatherd told The Daily Star.
Nizar Hani, coordinator of the new project, said that several studies have been conducted in order to "assign grazing time slots and to pinpoint locations where grazing will not cause vegetation to suffer."
"In addition," Hani said, "several workshops have been offered to goatherds from the Chouf region to introduce them to certain grazing schedules, as well as to provide them with tips on how to maintain the health of their goats."
Rotation schedules are the cornerstone of the new arrangement. Grazing locations are now divided into four major areas, with goatherds leading their herds to one, and only one, location each week on a rotating basis.
The reserve is one of the main passageways for migrating birds between Europe, Asia and Africa.
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