ACS – Al-Shouf Cedar Society

Nizar Hani is a protected areas/biodiversity conservation specialist with almost 16 years of field experience. He has a solid track record on ecosystem restoration, economic valuation, sustainable resources management and environmental awareness and education. Nizar is an excellent communicator and workshop facilitator. He is currently the manager of the Shouf Biosphere Reserve, Lebanon’s largest protected area, leading a team of more than 30 professionals. Nizar is one of the founders of the Mediterranean Mosaics program, with an active involvement since its early starts.

Monzer started his career at the Shouf Biosphere Reserve in 2010. His job involves supervising all maintenance/logistic work in the protected area, coordinating the input of experts, students, contractors, and the collection of field data on biodiversity, reforestation sites, capacity building needs assessment. He has been involved in the Mediterranean Mosaic since its early start as a Field Assistant. Since the beginning of the project, he has been taking care of the monitoring of the restored sites, and the technical aspects related to renewable energy plant nested within the MM program.

Rawya graduated from the Lebanese university holding a B.S. degree in Biology: Earth and Life Sciences and a master’s degree in neuroscience and cognitive behavior, then pursued her second master in environmental engineering where she worked on the economic value of Bkassine Pine Forest. Currently, she is the Research and monitoring officer at the Shouf Biosphere Reserve, joined the team 9 months ago, and now the Coordinator of the Lebanese Extension of the Mediterranean Mosaic program.

Lara graduated from the Lebanese University holding a Master’s I degree in Biochemistry. She is currently pursuing a master’s of Sciences in Food Technology. Recently, she started working at Shouf Biosphere Reserve as a research and monitoring officer assistant. Her work involves assistance in the projects, including reports writing, field work assistance and monitoring.