Extract
Woodlands erased with villages and farms causes immediate harm and represents a long term environmental threat
In satellite imagery, the villages have been erased, as if they never stood. Rubble upon rubble. No memories, no stories, no shared life that once bound the residents to the place. Residents following events with a mix of anxiety and pain say that all the roads have been bulldozed, with no trace left of the olive groves that bore witness to the lifetimes of Lebanese villages. Olives are part of South Lebanon’s identity, as the region produces around 38% of the country’s olive harvest overall, more than a third. Yet Israeli attacks have burned and bulldozed no fewer than 65,000 olive trees, including ancient ones.
Losses mount with each passing day. Recovery on the environmental front cannot be equated with infrastructure repair or financial restitution, difficult as those undertakings certainly are. According to recommendations issued in official Lebanese reports, recovery must be approached as a long process, in the face of deep environmental damage that has affected forests, agricultural lands, and existing ecosystems. We are speaking of woodlands fires, chemical pollution that has ravaged the soil, as well as contaminated rubble. All of this is not merely a temporary consequence of war, but it represents a long-term environmental threat.
Ecosystems are far more than just beautiful natural scenery. They form a basic economic infrastructure, tied to agriculture, health, and social stability. For this reason, destruction is not confined to demolished buildings. It goes beyond visible damage to a hidden, long-lasting harm: the disintegration of ecosystems and the loss of their ability to endure. According to Lebanese state estimates, environmental damage has kept on spreading across a wide geographic area, especially during periods of intensified military attacks, with the most severe impacts recorded in South Lebanon and Nabatieh Governorate.
The forestry sector’s disaster extended beyond the burn zone. Basic environmental and economic functions collapsed. The burning of woodlands’ cover led to direct losses in resources, including pine production and firewood generated through traditional forest management, with the cost estimated at around 6 million US dollars. But the deeper loss lies in the destruction of vital environmental services, including soil protection, the preservation of biodiversity, and the regulation of the local climate. In this sense, the affected areas did not lose trees alone, they lost the lines of defense that had protected surrounding communities from erosion, drought, and gradual environmental collapse.
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Annihilating South Lebanon: What we know so far about ecocide and urban devastation
