Terrorism may still be the first word that comes to mind when someone mentions the North African country of Libya, but the Libyan government hopes you’ll soon think of tourism instead. Specifically, eco-tourism. The International Herald Tribune reports from Cyrene, Libya…
Here in this remote eastern region of Libya whose bleak hills resemble a lunar landscape, the Green Mountain Sustainable Development Area is the latest in a spate of Libyan projects that form a sort of global coming-out party for a country that for decades was a pariah.
Over the weekend, fleets of white Mercedes vans ferried hundreds of guests along newly paved roads for a lamb dinner among the ruins and signing ceremony, presided over by Saif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, the son of President Muammar el-Qaddafi, on Monday. In an area where many people are illiterate, newly erected signs in crisp white and blue say “Airport” in Arabic and English. Development is definitely coming to town.
A group of wealthy Libyans and a bevy of consultants are planning to create a carbon neutral green development zone in Cyrene, an area the size of Wales centered on ancient Greek ruins. It will cater primarily to tourism and serve as a model for environmentally friendly design, they say.
But the intention is clearly broader than that. “They want to show the world that Libya has turned a corner - that they can fit into the modern world,” George Joffe, an expert on Libya at Cambridge University, said in a telephone interview.
The Green Mountain project exists only on paper right now, and the story contains plenty of skepticism that it will ever actually be built. But if it is, well…
Its energy is to come from the wind and solar power. Its waste is to be recycled, its trash converted to biofuel. Its buildings - resorts, hotels, villas and villages for locals - are to blend seamlessly into the rugged landscape.
The plan will protect Libya’s fantastic Greek and Roman ruins, as well its fragile coastal ecosystem - one of the last remaining natural areas of the Mediterranean - from the perils of haphazard development. The idea is that as Libya opens to the outside world, it will not become “like the Spanish coast,” said the project’s financial adviser, Mahmoud Khosan. It will also be a good investment.
With a brand name British architectural firm, Foster and Associates, designing the “Green Mountain Conservation and Development” zone, and Unesco helping with restorations, there is no shortage of star power to encourage a project that was conceived less than two months ago, and is still in the “vision” stage, as its organizers admit. Foster and Associates was contacted July 11. “There are large promises and lots of big names, but its hard to know what it will mean,” Joffe said. “This type of big announcement is normal for Libya but it’s hard to know if they’ll follow through.”
I wish them the best of luck. Here’s an Associated Press story on it.
