Restauración Forestal mediante Trabajo Remunerado en Anjar — Apoyo de la FAO y la República de Corea a la Reforestación por Refugiados y Comunidades de Acogida (Líbano)

Between November 2019 and July 2021, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Republic of Korea funded a $500,000 cash-for-work reforestation initiative in Anjar, in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, targeting refugee and host-community livelihoods alongside forest restoration.

To restore degraded forest land through paid work opportunities for Syrian refugees and vulnerable Lebanese residents, combining livelihood support with native tree planting.

The project was implemented jointly by FAO, Anjar Municipality, Lebanon's Ministry of Agriculture, the Lebanon Reforestation Initiative (LRI), and the Association for Forests, Development and Conservation (AFDC). It engaged 192 Syrian refugees and vulnerable Lebanese residents in cash-for-work activities, producing 68,145 native tree seedlings and planting 37,545 of them across 25 hectares.

The project produced 68,145 native seedlings and planted 37,545 across 25 hectares in Anjar. Across LRI's broader national programme (30+ sites, 600,000+ native seedlings planted), average seedling survival was 76%, though no Anjar-specific survival data is available.

The multi-partner governance structure (FAO, municipality, ministry, LRI, AFDC) provides credible oversight, but the project remains a discrete, donor-funded, time-bound initiative rather than a certified or nationally scaled payment-for-ecosystem-services scheme.