The Civil Campaign to Protect the Dalieh of Raoucheh authored a competition brief to guide all participants to the competition in elaborating and proposing their entries. It is available in English and Arabic on the Campaign’s website.
In addition, the Civil Campaign authored a rich background report providing text, narratives, images, testimonies, analytical maps, and legal references about the site. It includes information about the Civil Campaign beginnings, progressive growth, and timeline of actions to date. The report comprises maps and legal documents about the zoning laws governing the Dalieh site, in addition to regulations that altered its use. It has a rich spatial and historical analysis of the socio-cultural practices within Dalieh, in relation to the urbanization of Beirut, and representations related to the place—all mapped. It includes geomorphological, biodiversity and archeology maps, and images that demonstrate the ecological and historical wealth of the site. It contains a section analyzing the planning institutions, and the governance structure overseeing the site. The full report can be downloaded here.
It is worth noting that this report formed the basis of an application by the Civil Campaign to place Dalieh on the 2016 list of endangered sites identified by the World Monuments Watch, a component of the World Monument Fund (WMF)--a private, international, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of the world’s architectural legacy and cultural and natural heritage through calling international and local attention to its importance. On 15 October 2015, the WMF announced that Dalieh had been selected as part of this list—a major achievement for the coalition, which celebrated the news through the publication of this video below, and a press conference from which we cite this excerpt.
The successful listing of Dalieh on the World Monuments Watch:
- First, confirms its importance as a shared social space and as a natural heritage site of high cultural and environmental significance; hence, as a site that requires attention and protection at the international, regional and national level.
- Second, supports the demands of civil society, and city dwellers in general, for the right to the sea, nature, and a livable environment; and constitutes, at the same time, a new incentive for concerted and integrated efforts to free Dalieh from the clutches of real estate developers and powerful group—after it was symbolically freed in the past few weeks when the popular movement groups removed the fence that surrounded it.
- Third, has a moral significance, and adds a new dimension to its ownership. The notion of heritage is tightly linked with the notion of public good, which means that the protection of Dalieh, and other significant heritage sites in Lebanon, is a national obligation and s collective responsibility.
We, members of the civil campaign to protect Dalieh of Roauche, are committed to our responsibilities towards our natural and cultural heritage. Starting from Dalieh of Raouche we are striving to raise awareness regarding its importance and to protect it from all dangers, including encroachments on the marine public domain and amendments to zoning regulations at the expense of the environment and our right and the right of future generations to enjoy what is collective property for all. We also take the opportunity of the listing of Dalieh on the World Monuments Watch to remind all ministries and concerned public entities of their responsibilities towards this site and the entire Lebanese coast, and the need to enact and implement laws and measures that ensure its sustainability and pubic use. We especially request as a matter of priory from:
- The ministry of Public Works and Transportation: to rehabilitate the site, including the fishing harbor, and remove all rubble and barbed wires that obstruct free public access.
- The ministry of Environment: to pursue the decree that it proposed to classify the site as a Marine Protected Area, and to push the Council of Ministers to sign and issue it.
- The Higher Council of Urban Planning and Beirut municipality: given their authority in urban planning and design tools, not to approve any special project proposal on the site.
- The council of ministers: not to approve the issuance of any exceptional decree that grant site owners additional built-up areas that is not in accord with the current zoning regulations of Beirut.
- The ministry of Culture: to work on listing the site as an archaeological and cultural heritage site of significance at the national and eastern Mediterranean level.
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Dalieh is ours, reclaim it.