Due to its location and history, the Caza of Tyre owns an exceptional natural heritage that needs to be protected and enhanced.

The 22km long seashore, including the white cliffs of Bayada and Naqoura counts among Lebanon’s outstanding coastal sites. Still preserved from urbanization, the southern part of the Sour coastline offers a quasi-continuous walking path. This applies to the former railway “right of way” as well, which can match a soft moving trail. The old railway tunnel, well preserved, could also offer an alternative to the coastline walking path. Existing public and private beaches, as well as the coastal path are highly frequented by locals and visitors, especially in summer. Some restaurants and other facilities (private marinas) encroach upon the public maritime domain in Sour, Qlailé and Naqoura.

Water-related heritage represents a key element of Tyre’s regional identity: the region counts an important number of water springs, wells, mills, cisterns, basins and old quarries, with some presenting a historical and/or religious value. Picturesque valleys (Litani, Aaziyé) also count among the Caza’s remarkable areas due to their natural, touristic appeal, landscape, and agricultural features.

They present an opportunity for the development of ecotourism and sightseeing activities (presence of panoramic view points). This asset is altered by weakly controlled seasonal and/or permanent occupation of the shores by restaurants, and fringe development on the top of the hills. Its preservation and the protection of many other natural and cultural sites are a real challenge since the stakes are high for real estate sector and tourism development in that area. Besides, the various conflicts that have affected the southern part of the Caza have paradoxically preserved it from excessive development. This exceptional destiny is an opportunity to develop this area’s potential in a more sustainable manner than the rest of the Caza. It is important to engage the different municipalities into sustainable policies and practices that can allow a conciliating between tourism development and environmental protection.

The importance of the Workshop is in line with the Strategic Sustainable Regional Development Plan for the Tyr of Caza elaborated in 2015 where the support of ecotourism is one of the main objectives and the creation of these kind of itinerary is considered as priority project of the Union of Municipality.

The participants of the International field workshop Valorization of the Cultural identity and Natural Heritage in villages of Tyre Caza are 12 youth NEETs from 3 countries: Jordan (2), Lebanon (9), and Tunisia (1).

The Workshop will be constituted of 3 main branches in order to reach the workshop objective:

The first branch of the workshop will be informative (educational) where participants will develop technical knowledge related to the workshop thematic and acquire the hard skills and as well in this period the workshop team will be working with the participants on group creations and group dynamics.

The second branch of the workshop will be dedicated for group field work where data collection will take place through interviews with Municipalities, architectural and landscape survey in the targeted area in order to identify the landmarks in these villages, interviews with touristic agents in order to assess their interest, territory analysis in order to identify the presence of facilities and infrastructure needed.

The last branch of the workshop will be dedicated for the preparation of the handbook of the proposed itineraries that will be used as a touristic guide referencing the entire Natural and Cultural Heritage identified points that will be useful to promote this itinerary.

This workshop is organised by Association for the Development of Rural Capacities (ADR) in Lebanon, partner of RESMYLE project.

Click for more information on all RESMYLE workshops.

The workshop is part of RESMYLE project - Rethinking employment and social inclusion of Mediterranean youth through sustainable development - funded by the European Union's ENI CBC MED programme.

Follow us on our social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) for more information and updates on this workshop!