BEIRUT: The Governorate of Beirut held a campaign Sunday to clean up the city’s last pine tree forest, Horsh Beirut.

Nassif Qalosh, the acting governor of Beirut, participated in the campaign alongside members of the city’s municipal council and heads of the fire department and the municipal police.

Qalosh said the aim of the campaign was to “provide visitors to the forest with comfort, and to avoid fires that could potentially erupt due to dry plants in the summer season.”

He announced that the doors of the forest were open to those who like to play sports, provided they preserve the cleanliness of the area.

He promised to hold similar clean-up campaigns in other green spaces and gardens in and around the city. Occupying 255,000 square meters today, Horsh Beirut is a shadow of what it was in 1967, when it occupied 800,000 square meters.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Daily Star on May 20, 2013, on page 4.

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2013/May-20/217675-governorate-cleans-up-horsh-beirut-pine-forest.ashx#ixzz2UDRbaVYX
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)