GRASSROOTS ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVISM IN LEBANON: DAVID VS GOLIATH?

Lebanon’s activist scene has always been characterized by ambitious initiatives designed to oppose projects that place individual interests over collective welfare. Whilst successes are not always guaranteed, many groups continue to confront daily injustices with relentless advocacy campaigns, protests, and community mobilization. Under the banner of adopting a grassroots approach to instill longterm bottom-up change, some of these movements, such as the Save Bisri Campaign, have earned the admiration of thousands around Lebanon and abroad.

Nevertheless, these initiatives have oftentimes emerged in opposition to projects portrayed as threats to social and environmental justice. In a context of deep communitarian and political ruptures, these popular movements have often been built on the idea of opposing a certain threat, rather than advancing a shared

vision. These movements find it difficult to transcend the projects’ timeline and become indispensable actors in Lebanon’s civil society, which prevents systematic advocacy against similar threats when they arise. As a result, Lebanon’s grassroots activism scene is highly dependent on dispersed initiatives and the nature of the threat they are opposing."