Dear colleagues at the Ministry of Environment, the Lebanese Environment Forum, and the Palm Islands Nature Reserve Committee,
In response to what was published under the title “Guardians of the Coast: Lebanon’s Seabirds in Peril and Hope”
Guardians of the Coast: Lebanon’s Seabirds in Peril and Hope
and at the request of the Palm Islands Nature Reserve Committee, I provide the following clarifications:
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It is not correct that the reserve ever had large colonies of birds; rather, they were small colonies of species that at the time were not yet threatened. (Here we are referring to Stenhouse’s study in the late 19th century, specifically in 1895). None of the bird observers who later visited the Palm Islands—in the 1920s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and even to this day—found Audouin’s Gull nesting on the islands. On the contrary, in the past five years we have documented, through photographs and evidence, attempts by Audouin’s Gull to nest on the islands. This is the direct result of scientific and carefully planned conservation efforts on the islands. Our plan was presented to MedPAN in 2016 through a poster and was well received.
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There is no such bird as the “Yellow-headed Tern” in Lebanon or anywhere in the world, historically or today. Even Stenhouse did not mention such a species. What he described was the Common Tern—a widespread and numerous species that has never reached the level of being threatened with extinction.
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As for the Little Tern (White-fronted Tern), it is not threatened as claimed, and no one has recorded it breeding on the islands of the reserve or in Lebanon for over a hundred years.
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What displeased me was the claim that the Caspian Gull is attempting to breed in Lebanon. Why should it want to breed here? It is a bird of northern, colder regions, where it nests naturally. Lebanon’s climate is warmer than what it requires. Moreover, the Caspian Gull is considered somewhat of a pest in the northern cold areas where it breeds. Do we really need more pests in Lebanon? For those who may not know, the Yellow-legged Gull, which nests on the Palm Islands, is a twin species of the Caspian Gull. The differences between them are very minor (3–4 small traits that only trained experts can detect), with the main difference being leg color. With all that said, why do some people assume that attempts of the Caspian Gull to breed in Lebanon symbolize decline in the reserve, instead of reflecting the reserve’s ability to attract birds?
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As you can see, the person who wrote the text, which seems to have been circulated and published through the Lebanese Environment Forum without the forum being consulted, did not verify the accuracy of the information. Their statement unfairly holds the reserve and its managers responsible for the cessation of breeding of certain bird species (3–4 species) between 1901 and 1991—that is, before the reserve was even established or declared. Yet if one examines what has been achieved on the islands since 1992 to the present, they will find published studies comparing the birdlife of the Palm Islands between the 1990s and the 1920s. The number of breeding species increased to 10, whereas in Stenhouse’s time there were only 5. Moreover, the number of bird species observed on the islands after their declaration as a reserve grew significantly—about 110 new species recorded by Dr. Ghassan Jaradi between 1995 and 2008, and around 34 new species documented by Dr. Michel Sawan and Mr. Fouad Aytani.
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Finally, and for your information: the reserve places great emphasis on biodiversity. Within a project funded by MedFund, I, together with bird expert and photographer Fouad Aytani, prepared in 2025 a full action plan to restore Audouin’s Gull to its former status. In parallel, with Mr. Samer Fattfat, reserve director and fish expert, I developed a detailed action plan to enhance and rehabilitate the dusky grouper (Epinephelus marginatus) population in the Palm Islands Nature Reserve.
Professor Dr. Ghassan Ramadan Jaradi
Former Chairman of the Reserve Committee and its current remote Scientific Advisor.
