Aiming at showing a real life model of a rehabilitated quarry and help the private sector to understand the challenges behind quarry rehabilitation, the International Union for Conservation of Nature – Regional Office for West Asia (IUCN ROWA) worked with Holcim Lebanon, the oldest cement company in the region, in rehabilitating a limestone quarry in Chekka through Holcim Quarry Rehabilitation Project. This project is implemented in cooperation with the National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the Association for Forests, Development and Conservation (AFDC) in Lebanon.

Biodiversity survey studies were done as a baseline to define site characteristics. These studies showed the complex nature of the quarry, which required a diverse rehabilitation approach. Arid environment on site and lack of water availability resulted in a low biodiversity rate comparing to the site surroundings. Soil erosion, lack of topsoil due to excavation activities and high degradation of quarry site lead to the loss of ecological resilience and showed a slow ecological processes.

The rehabilitation process oriented around limiting the soil erosion and water runoff, promote landscape integration within the surrounding and restore and keep the site as close as possible to natural state as well as improve fauna presence through habitat creation and management.

Chekka quarry serves as a successful story for educational and research purposes. The achievements in this project were documented in a short documentary that is called Holcim Lebanon Quarry Rehabilitation.

For more information, kindly contact:

Mufleh Abbadi, Water and Climate Change Programme Manger at:
Mufleh.abbadi@iucn.org