Ain Dara›s Hidden Ecological Potential: The Quarry Park

Quarrying can be performed in a sustainable way. Instead, a vast majority of Lebanon’s quarries are illegal, unregulated and rapidly destroying Lebanon’s signature mountains. Despite being located within a conservation zone, the illegal quarrying activity has been affecting the village of Ain Dara (Lebanon) since the end of the civil war. Starting from 2009, and due to the countless locally-led protests, these quarries (16 out of 17 of them) have been shutting down, leaving the village to deal with significant ecological damage, an overall change in its landscape character and identity. Two quarry typologies are present in Ain Dara: sand quarries situated in the middle of a pine forest, causing immense ecological damage; and stone quarries that are located at a mountain top, affecting water flow and Ain Dara’s natural landform.

The Quarry Park proposes a landscape intervention of ecological rehabilitation based on water management and re-vegetation techniques. It reclaims the disturbed ecosystem resulted from the mineral extraction while introducing a new process of water management (constructed wetlands designed for wastewater treatment, rainwater harvesting, and nutrient recovery) and quarry re-naturalization. The successful implementation of the proposal is expected to enhance flora and fauna diversity and to create microhabitats within these quarries while establishing ecological and aesthetical links between the site and the nearby ecological. The project also foresees commercial, educational and social activities at both local and regional levels, which are rooted in the Chouf Biosphere reserve culture.