Legal expert

1.    Background Information

Marine litter is a complex and multi-dimensional problem challenging the marine and coastal environment of the Mediterranean since the 1970s. The sources of marine litter can be categorized as either land-based or sea-based, depending on how litter reaches the water.
Lebanon generates around 365,003 kg of plastic wastes per day in year 2010, 123,700 kg of which are inadequately managed and 7,300 kg are littered in the sea on daily basis (UNEP/MAP, 2015). The release of waste from the national coastal landfills and dumps, water transports, recreational coastal activities, and illegal dumping along rivers all contribute to the marine litter problem in Lebanon.
A new law on Waste Management was published on October 10th 2018. However, many questions on this law and previous ones need to be investigated such as: are the regulations sufficient to reduce plastic litter into the sea? What are the new regulations and decrees that need to be added to fill the gap and decrease plastic waste?

Lebanon Eco Movement (LEM) in coordination with the Lebanese Environment Forum (LEF) are currently implementing a project entitled “Lebanese civil society combating for a plastic free Mediterranean Sea” funded by the EU commission.

The duration of the project is two years and it which started on 22 June 2018). It aims to financially support third parties (such as associations, unions of Fishermen Corporation, municipalities, environmental clubs and others) in implementing small projects combating plastic pollution in the sea and to launch an advocacy and awareness campaign on sea pollution and alternative methods of current practices.

The project has 3 components:
1. Work Package 1: Financial support to third parties
2. Work Package 2: Policy change and Advocacy
3. Work Package 3: Awareness raising

The Policy change and Advocacy (Work Package 2) includes different activities like documenting marine litter and plastic pollution - already commissioned to a research center-, proposing regulatory improvements based on the outcomes of the marine litter report and on a legal assessment and gap analysis; and conducting advocacy activities.
For this job, Lebanon Eco Movement is seeking a legal consultant to review the Lebanese legislation and compare it with regional and international regulations in order to come up with suggestion on which policies LEM could work on under the Extended Producer Responsibility with a focus on Plastic waste in terms of regulations and procedures from production to consumption and then to treatment.

2. Objectives

The global objective is to strengthen the understanding on the current legislative framework and environmental laws as a mean to support and orient the planned advocacy campaign on Policy change & Advocacy on "Plastic Producer Responsibility" under Work Package 2.
The specific objectives are to:
•    Describe the current state of environmental laws in Lebanon to better understand the depth and nature of the problem and check for commonalities and differences in the regional and international approaches and procedures.
•    Based on the Marine litter study results, propose potential updates if need be on the current law and new regulations.
•    Facilitate Lebanon Eco Movement meetings and coordination activities with the different stakeholders by highlighting the main issues to tackle, providing directions and recommendations for the advocacy and awareness campaigns.

3. Scope of Work

3.1. The consultant should collect and review existing laws on marine and plastic litter in Lebanon. As well as review the regional and international environmental laws and the regional and international conventions related to this subject and to which Lebanon is signatory in order to compare the Lebanese status. Gaps and needs should be highlighted and investigated to improve and promulgate regulations on marine litter and plastic reduction.

3.2. Develop a policy paper on the selected environmental advocacy issue/s based on reports, analysis, and discussions. The policy paper should include guidelines and recommendations and propose the next steps with the GoL, the local authorities and the civil society in Lebanon.

4. Maximum budget
10,000.00 EURO

5. Deliverables (Work duration is 2 months)

A policy paper on Plastic Producer Responsibility including a research on plastic waste regulations (desk review and gap analysis….) and recommendations on environmental laws and new proposed regulations