Marta Vidal

The enduring legacy of Lebanon’s beloved cedar tree

THE NATIONAL (19/5/2023) Draped with snow, the ancient cedars on the mountain slopes of northern Lebanon spread their evergreen branches like arms welcoming visitors. On Mount Makmel, the country’s oldest cedar grove towers over Wadi Qadisha, the “Holy Valley”, where monasteries carved into cliffs for centuries were a place of refuge and meditation. Known locally as Arz […]

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Preserving heat-adapted seeds to feed a warming world

MONGABAY (20/9/2022) Sitting cross-legged in the summer sun, Fatima collects seedpods from fava beans in Terbol, a quiet village surrounded by cypress trees and vineyards in the Beqaa Valley in Lebanon. “It’s my first day here,” she says as she smiles shyly, glancing over the hills she had to cross with her family to flee […]

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Palestinian refugees use street art to keep hope alive

MIDDLE EAST EYE (14/9/2017) Streets are dim and narrow in the Palestinian refugee camp of Burj al-Barajneh, in southern Beirut. Walls are so high in the camp’s thread-like alleys, that in some places daylight is nowhere to be found. Yet colours burst off the walls where murals have been painted by Palestinian artists using art […]

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