A first assessment of community values, rules and knowledge of Mount Hermon, Lebanon: key perspectives towards biocultural conservation

Abstract

Abstract Mount Hermon, Lebanon, is a biodiversity hotspot of high cultural value making biocultural perspective highly relevant towards conservation context of this mountain territory. This study aims at identifying a community values, rules and knowledge (VRK) framework heuristic for decision-making. Semi-structured interviews with 126 local informants were conducted during 2022–2023. Findings illustrate that while instrumental values (e.g. water source through snow melt and rain, tourism and recreational activities, land and soil for crop production) were most frequently expressed by informants (63% of expressions), relational values (e.g. social identity, sense of place, spiritual way of life) representing preferences, principles, and virtues about human-nature relationships scored second but still high (41.72%) and subjective intrinsic values of nature (e.g. right to exist) as an end in itself followed last (7.65%). Co-occurrence of formal (indicated by 62.26% of the informants) and informal rules (indicated by 37.74% of the informants) with informants having prevalent local ecological knowledge in resource use were identified in a 70.27% of the informants. Grouping by PCA method demonstrates five strong correlations of enabling or conflicting interactions within the VRK framework that merit close consideration for a meaningful participatory conservation strategy of both biodiversity and cultural diversity in a key hotspot.