On 4 November 2025, the Judge of Urgent Matters in Jbeil, Berta Samaha, issued a judicial order requiring the immediate suspension of all excavation and construction activities on plot 345/Amchit, situated above the coastal cave that serves as the primary known habitat of the critically endangered Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus) on the Lebanese coast. The decision was issued following a petition filed by Member of Parliament Najat Aoun Saliba and environmental activist Farid Abi Younes, represented by lawyer Chaker Haddad and in cooperation with the Social and Economic Institute for Development (SEID). The court found that the construction works constituted a violation of Lebanon’s Environmental Protection Law and of international conventions on the protection of marine mammals, and represented an encroachment on public maritime domain. The court tasked Jbeil police and the Jounieh Coast Guard with immediate enforcement and imposed a daily fine of 200 million Lebanese pounds for non-compliance.
Within hours of the ruling, cement mixers arrived at the site and activists from the Save Our Seals campaign, led by Paul Abi Rached of Terre Liban, were forced to stage a physical sit-in to prevent further construction. A second judicial order issued by the same judge on 9 January 2026 reversed the protective order. Works resumed on 10 March 2026, and by 18 March 2026, construction machinery was again active above the cave without a completed environmental impact assessment, as documented by The Legal Agenda. This sequence, initial activist and judicial success followed by swift enforcement failure and judicial reversal, defines the enabling environment concern this report addresses.