Climate change is killing cedars, starting with those in Lebanon.

It's one of the most beautiful spectacles nature can offer. Green patches touching the clouds on plateaus that would otherwise be almost completely bare. These are the cedars, a tree species that has become the symbol of an entire country, the Lebanon. A very ancient species, these plants have been able to survive invasions, fires and deforestation, but today they are seriously at risk of not being able to resist the climate change. In fact, increasingly warmer temperatures are putting their survival at risk, so much so that they risk disappearing from the country by the end of the century.

CEDARS AT RISK OF EXTINCTION

Some of the oldest trees in the Lebanese forests have over a thousand years and sink their roots deep, making their way into the steep limestone rock. Cedars thrive in humid areas with cool temperatures, a climate that until a few decades ago was typical of the Lebanese highlands. In fact, this landscape was once rich with many thousands of square kilometers of forest. Today, however, they remain only 17 square kilometers of cedars, in scattered groves.

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CEDAR CLIMATE CHANGE

As temperatures rise, the ecological comfort zone of cedars is gradually shifting. towards the mountains at ever higher altitudesThis species requires cold winters to reproduce. Therefore, if the climate warms due to the continued increase in greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, cedars will be able to thrive. only in the northern tip of the country, where the mountains are highest.

But even in the north the situation is not improving much, again due to global warming. The densest cedar forest in Lebanon, the Cedar Forest Nature Reserve of Tannourine, lost more than 7% of its trees due to infestations of unknown insects before 1997. And the proliferation of these animals it's a direct cconsequence of the increase in temperatures.

CEDAR OF LEBANON

The cedar of Lebanon, scientifically known as cedar, grows mainly in the Middle Eastern country and in Turkey. The trees germinate in late winter because they need the cold and preferably snow. Normally the cedar seedlings should emerge around the beginning of May, while now, they do so about a month earlier, risking to die of cold or under theinsect attackTo demonstrate how much the climate has changed in this corner of the world, it's enough to know that until the last decade, in Lebanon, at high altitude, it rained or snowed 105 days a year and the snow didn't melt for three or four months. In recent winters, however, there have been an average of 40 days of rain and only one month of snow cover.

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