The focus of the project is a pair of land-use conflicts in the region, which, prior to the 1960s was devoted to typical agro-pastoral activities. The first conflict goes back some 40 years when some farmers began to raise stone fruit trees, mainly cherries and apricots. The experiment was successful, and the area has become a major fruit producing region. However, in order to maximize output, families with land enclosed (in the old British sense) the best land for orchards, which not merely reduced the area available for pasturing sheep and goats but precluded their use of just those pastures on which they had formerly relied in dry years. More recently, quarries have begun to take over potential fruit growing areas on the lower slopes of the mountains, and to smother nearby fruit trees because of dust. The conflict between herders and fruit growers divides along local class and family lines; that between fruit growers and quarries divides Arsaalis from outsiders.
The two phases of Sustainable Improvement of Marginal Lands in Lebanon analysed these changes, defined their impact on the natural resource base and on socio-economic relationships, and developed, together with the community, technical and institutional measures which would lead toward more sustainable forms of land-use management. On its own terms, the projects were clearly successful. They met or exceeded all objectives. Moreover, though policy was never mentioned as a specific objective, the projects also had significant policy influence, at least if the term policy is defined broadly.
