This commentary takes a spatial approach to dissecting the Lebanese Government’s controversial Decisions No. 16 and No. 59 (passed in April 2026), exposing them as a continuation of a decades-long trajectory of collusion between the state and the powerful cement cartel, including the two major companies operating in Koura: “Holcim” and “National Cement Company.”
The commentary outlines the political context and timing of these decisions, revealing how authorities used the pretext of needing reconstruction material—amidst the current war and following years of intermittent quarry shutdowns—to shield cement companies from accountability for decades of illegal quarrying. It traces the legal and spatial history of the companies’ quarries in Koura, detailing how they systematically expanded illegally by exploiting politically motivated “administrative temporary permits.” It then focuses on the maneuvering behind Decisions 16 and 59, exposing the government’s illegal attempt to revive an obsolete, judicially annulled 1997 Master Plan to carve out geographic privileges for the cartel after the National Council for Quarries withheld retroactive approvals.
By analyzing the issue through a geographical lens, the commentary also demonstrates how these decisions directly violate the National Physical Master Plan for the Lebanese Territory (Decree 2366/2009), highlights the subversion of local zoning and master plans, and presents briefly the decisions’ devastating on-ground impacts.
Finally, the commentary concludes by outlining a rights-based path forward that rejects export greed, demands production caps strictly tethered to local reconstruction needs, and demands an alternative, just economic transition that restores Koura’s traditional agrarian, fishing, and eco-tourism sectors.
Overall, the text reframes this governmental maneuvering as an act of state-sponsored “ecocide”, where natural terrain is treated as a lawless site for resource extraction.
Read the full commentary in Arabic.
