Horsh Beirut — EU-Funded Revival of Beirut's Largest Green Space (ENABLE Programme)

Horsh Beirut is a pine forest that once extended across roughly 130 hectares in the 17th century but shrank by about 80% through war damage and urban encroachment, leaving today's roughly 33-hectare (330,000 m²) park — still the largest public green space in the Lebanese capital, accounting for an estimated 72% of Beirut's total public green area. The park was closed to most residents in 1992 after Lebanon's civil war, saw limited replanting around 2006, and only partially reopened to the public in 2015, becoming fully accessible daily from 2016 after sustained campaigning by local NGOs.
Since 2023, the EU-funded ENABLE programme (Empowering Networks and Activation for Building Long-term Employment, running 2023–2026) has funded a revitalisation led by the International Labour Organization together with Lebanon's Ministry of Social Affairs, the Municipality of Beirut, and local NGOs Nahnoo and arcenciel. Using employment-intensive construction methods, the first phase — inaugurated in September 2025 — rebuilt a 1.7 km bicycle lane, upgraded the skatepark, and rehabilitated public restrooms, while giving roughly 200 young women and men who were previously outside the labour market paid work; the programme plans to extend support to over 400 more people currently receiving social assistance. Further phases are planned to add an amphitheatre, a library and additional green area.
The park hosts a native Mediterranean pine-forest ecosystem with resident bird populations and, according to a partner cultural institution, newly recovering flora and fauna since public access resumed — but the sources reviewed do not publish species counts, canopy-cover change, or stormwater/soil data, so ecological outcomes are scored conservatively below relative to the well-documented social and governance results.

Read the full analysis: https://lebanon.un.org/en/301419-beirut%E2%80%99s-largest-park-transformed-symbol-inclusion-sustainability-and-community-life-lebanon