Land Use,Land Use Change and Forestry Related GHG Emissions in Lebanon: Economic Valuation and Policy Options

Global climate change has been one of the most challengingenvironmental concerns facing policy makers in the past decade.The characterization of the wide range of greenhouse gas (GHG)sources and sinks as well as the behavior of GHGs in theatmosphere remains an on-going activity in many countries.Lebanon, being a signatory to the Framework Convention onClimate Change, is required to submit and regularly update anational inventory of GHG emission sources and removals.Accordingly, an inventory of greenhouse gases from varioussectors was conducted following the guidelines set by theUnited Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Theinventory indicated that the land use, land use change, andforestry sector contributed about 1% to the totalgreenhouse gas emissions instead of acting as a sink. Thisarticle proposes mitigation scenarios to reduce these emissionsand increase carbon sequestration in the Lebanese land use.Limitations in emission estimation, economic valuation, andpolicy options are also addressed.