GHF Cyrene Featured in Daily Telegraph

Gadaffi's son leads fight to woo eco-tourists

By Malcolm Moore in Cyrene
September 9, 2007

An ambitious project to turn the ancient city of Cyrene, in Libya, into a centre for eco-tourism, was announced yesterday by Saif al-Islam Gadaffi, the second eldest of Col Maummar Gaddafi's seven sons.

Saif, 33, who is emerging as a political power and has been tipped to take over from his father, said that the plan was for 20 luxury hotels and thousands of new houses around the archaeological ruins on the north-east coast.

Thin, clean-shaven and bookish, he spoke haltingly from a pre-written speech, emphasising the dangers of climate change and desertification and vaguely outlining a project which aims to put Libya firmly on the tourist trail, positioning it as a clean and green Dubai.

Enormous hoardings along the side of the road reminded the invited guests that it has now been 38 years since Col Gadaffi assumed the role of Libya's "Brotherly Leader and Guide" after a bloodless coup. The initial stages of the new project will cost £1.5 billion of government money, as well as another £700 million from Hassan Tatanaki, a billionaire friend of the younger Gadaffi who made his fortune from renting out oil rigs.

The aim is to make the area ecologically friendly, to provide jobs to the unskilled and uneducated local population, and to excavate more of the area, one of the most important and untouched Greek sites.

Mr Tatanaki said he aimed to have around three million visitors within three to five years. "I have seen Morocco and Tunisia, and to be honest, Libya is much more beautiful, and completely unspoilt. Where else can you wander through ruins among the trees?" he said.

Stefaan Poortman, of the Global Heritage Fund, said: "There is a whole different class of tourists that is very curious about Libya. We have had a lot of inquiries already. These tourists want somewhere off the beaten track, somewhere different."

If the project is successful, it will help cement the reputation of Saif Gaddafi, who said yesterday that he spent two months of each year in the region, and whose mother, Safiya, was born near Cyrene.

Although there is no indication that Col Gadaffi is close to relinquishing power, Saif has emerged in the last few years in an active role by his father's side. He was the key negotiator in the release in July of six Bulgarian nurses who spent eight years in a Libyan prison charged with infecting children with the HIV virus.

"He is eclectic, and open to new ideas," said a diplomatic source.

Saif Gadaffi does not have an official position in the cabinet, but heads the Red Crescent, the Libya Youth Movement, and the Gaddafi Development Fund. He is due to complete his PhD in Governance and International Relations at the London School of Economics next month.

Above and Below: GHF Photos from Cyrene Declaration – September 10, 2007

By Michael Hirst

Saif al-Islam Gaddafi launched the project in ancient Cyrene

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's son has unveiled a £1.5bn ($3bn) plan aimed at safeguarding Libya's archaeological sites and preventing the overdevelopment of its rugged Mediterranean coastline. It represents a further step in the country's international rehabilitation. What Saif al-Islam Gaddafi's initiative lacked in detail it made up for in sheer ambition.

The "Green Mountain Sustainable Development Area" envisages a national park, eco-friendly hotels, organic farms and the restoration of archaeological sites that rival the Mediterranean's most famous.

Its backers hope the initiative will bring well-heeled eco-tourists flocking to the 2,000 sq-mile area of land along the north-eastern unspoilt coastline between Benghazi and Tobruk, creating jobs for more than 70,000 young Libyans in the process.

Costly project

A bespectacled Saif Gaddafi, bedecked in traditional Libyan robes, read a prepared speech in stilted English to a gathering of 200 dignitaries and journalists within Cyrene's impressive 2,000-year-old forum.

CYRENE - 'ATHENS OF AFRICA'

• Founded by Greeks in 631BC
• Becomes important city in Hellenic/Roman worlds
• Temple of Zeus was larger than Athens' Parthenon
• City destroyed by earthquake in 365AD
• Named Unesco World Heritage Site in 1982

"Our intention is to build a complete and sustainable social, cultural, economic and environmental system in which the needs of the present allow for the needs of future generations," said Saif Gaddafi, flanked by 2,000-year-old Greek columns. The realisation of such lofty goals will not come cheap, with estimates ranging from £1bn to £2.5bn.

Those involved with the Cyrene project were vague about the designs, time-frame and costs.

Guests were given a detailed brief on the ambitious project

Spencer de Grey, head of design at Lord Norman Foster's British architectural firm, which was commissioned to plan the project, said it was too early to define a time-frame or cost-structure.

"These plans are really just to illustrate potential; these are not yet a finite proposal," he told
the BBC.

'Green' creed

Sceptics at the launch wondered how such an ambitious project, existing in its early stages as
a glossy publicity brochure and several scale models, would be funded.

Guests were given a detailed brief on the ambitious project

Peter Bunyard, a founding editor of the Ecologist magazine, said: "It's obviously going to be a
very expensive investment so quite where the financing will come from I do not know."

The project is being seen as an attempt to diversify Libya's economy, which is currently
dependent on oil for 95% of its export earnings and 25% cent of its GDP.

Thirty-eight years after his father assumed the role of Libya's "Brotherly Leader and Guide" in
a bloodless coup, Saif Gaddafi avoided speculation about the impact of millions of tourists
visiting a country still governed according to the blend of Islam and socialism that make up
Col Gaddafi's "green" creed.

Condoleezza Rice visit?

Although he has no official position within Libya's government, 35-year-old Saif has been
cultivating a reputation as a reformer.

The second oldest of Col Gaddafi's seven sons, Saif studied architecture at university in Tripoli
and will shortly complete a governance and international relations doctorate at the London
School of Economics.

The Green Mountain project is the latest step in Libya's evolution from international pariah.

In 2003, 11 years of UN sanctions were lifted when Col Gaddafi announced he was abandoning Libya's nuclear weapons programme.

Last year, the US state department removed Libya from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, and the US embassy in Tripoli opened its doors for the first time since it was attacked and set ablaze by a mob in 1979.

Libya's coming in from the international cold could be crowned this year with a scheduled visit by Condoleezza Rice.

If that trip goes ahead, she will be the first US secretary of state to visit in more than half a century. Bemused locals lined dusty streets as police escorted a motorcade of gleaming white Mercedes vans transporting dignitaries and journalists around Cyrene's ancient ruins.

During 30 years in political quarantine, Libya has not welcomed many tourists to its ancient heritage sites. If Saif Gaddafi has his way, that will soon change.

The Associated Press
Monday, September 10, 2007

CYRENE, Libya: The son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi unveiled an ambitious plan on Monday to protect ancient Greek ruins, conserve the country's pristine Mediterranean coastline and draw eco-tourists to this former pariah state.

Seif al-Islam Gadhafi's plan is part of an attempt to dramatically change the image of Libya — to an ecologically friendly tourist destination — at a time when the country is nearing its longsought political goal: getting into the West's good graces.

The younger Gadhafi announced the project at a lavish ceremony inside a 2,200-year-old Greek gymnasium in the ruins of the ancient city of Cyrene, one of the country's largely untouched and unvisited antiquity sites that Libya hopes will pull in foreigners. "Our intention is to build a complete and sustainable social, cultural, economic and environmental system in which the needs of the present allow for the needs of future generations," said Gadhafi, standing on the gymnasium's open plaza surrounded by tall, beigecolored columns.

Details of the plan were vague. But the intention is to make 5,500-sq. kilometers of the northeastern Libya — a region known as the Green Mountain — an environmentally sustainable region, creating a national park and eco-tourism opportunities while excavating and protecting the nearby ancient temples and Mediterranean coast.

The Green Mountain is a virtually unspoiled region of fertile land, gorges and Greek ruins that rival those found in Greece and Turkey.

"Its time now to join developed countries and make a statement that we are also concerned about the environment and culture," Gadhafi, who is known in Libya as "The Engineer," told reporters after the ceremony.

Touted as a reformer, 36-year-old Gadhafi has increasingly been sharing his father's spotlight and reaching out the West to soften Libya's image and return it to the international mainstream. He has no official government post, but many see him as the man most likely to take power in the North African country when his 65-year-old father steps down or dies.

After spending decades as the United States' sworn enemy, Libya is embarking on a political and economic change of heart.

It is hoping to cap its rehabilitation later this year with an expected visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who would be the first secretary of state to come to Libya since John Foster Dulles in 1953.

Its rogue state status abruptly changed in 2003 when U.N. sanctions imposed 11 years earlier were lifted after the elder Gadhafi announced he was dismantling his nuclear weapons program. That same year, Libya accepted responsibility for the 1988 bombing of Pam Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland and agreed to pay restitution to the families of the 270 victims. Last year, the U.S. State Department removed Libya from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

The U.S. opened an interests section in Libya in 2004 and last year reopened its embassy for the first time since 1979, when a mob attacked and set fire to the mission. Leading the push toward putting Libya back on the map is Seif al-Islam, who most recently won praise for helping release five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who were jailed for allegedly infecting Libyan children with HIV.

Those involved with the younger Gadhafi's newest project see his vision as an opportunity to diversify Libya's economy, which is now dependent on oil for about 95 percent of export earnings and 25 percent of its GDP, according to U.S. government figures.

"Libya has opened up to the world, and tourism will come. Now the question is how to do it in a positive way," said Stefan Behling, an architect who specializes in sustainable development and whose British firm Foster + Partners was commissioned by Gadhafi's son to work on this plan.

But obstacles remain in this country where the elder Gadhafi has ruled with an iron fist for more than three decades and outsiders have not been welcome.

Many visitors, especially Americans, find visas difficult to obtain and often have to travel as part of an organized tour group.

Details about the Green Mountain project and how its vision would be implemented were vague. Organizers of Monday's ceremony, which featured an array of international archeologists and conservationists, said the Libyan government was directly involved though a new body known as the Green Mountain Conservation and Development Authority — whose board of trustees has not yet been named — would oversee the project.

No one could provide the amount of money that would be needed and had already been pledged by the government. Estimates ranged from US$2 billion to US$5 billion, but no one would provide a precise figure.

At Monday's event, organizers presented models and graphics depicting their ideas including three small eco-friendly hotels and resorts, but a timeline for the projects was not given. Despite the lack of specific details, Seif and others involved in the project stressed the importance of preserving Libya's ancient history and natural beauty, including tree-filled mountains and cliffs overlooking the sea, as the country opens its doors to more tourists and investors.

Part of the plan includes pushing tourist and local development further back into the Green Mountains to leave the coast untouched. The three hotels would be set back into the hills and remain unseen from the Greek ruins, organizers said. Large-scale, mass tourism popular in Libya's North African and Mediterranean neighbors would be prohibited.

Renovation of the ancient city of Cyrene, which the Greeks first developed in 631 BC, would also be part of the project. Cyrene was one of the principal cities in Hellenic world and was later settled by the Romans until it was finally destroyed by an earthquake in 365, according to UNESCO, which named Cyrene as one of its World Heritage Sites 1982.

"Libya is blessed with extremely diversified antiquities. But there is an upper limit to the number of tourists that these sites can contain," said Giuma Anag, chairman of Libya's Department of Archaeology.

Seif al-Islam, who was wore traditional Libyan clothing including a black hat and light golden scarf, toured the gymnasium. He told reporters he spends two months a year in the Green Mountains and has been dreaming of creating a sustainable region here for a "long time." "Its part of our process to modernize our country and move forward. ... This treasure is not just for Libyans but for the whole mankind," he said.

By Heba Saleh in Cyrene, eastern Libya
September 11, 2007

In a new sign of its determination to shed its pariah image and open up to the world, Libya announced yesterday plans to launch an ambitious project aimed at bringing environmentally sound tourism and sustainable development to its vast Green Mountain coastal region, an area rich in Greek and Roman antiquities in the east of the country.

"We started this project because in our [region] it is not common to talk about the environment or about gas [carbon] emissions. These [are seen] as the problems of Europe and north America," said Seif al-Islam al-Gadaffi, son of the Libyan leader. "But it is now time to join the developed countries and to show that in environmental and cultural issues we are civilised."

Surrounded by the imposing columns of the gymnasium of the ancient Greek city of Cyrene on the Mediterranean, Mr Gadaffi told an audience of architects, international financiers and western journalists that the project would conserve the region's antiquities, provide jobs, develop renewable energy sources and improve the standard of living for the local population. "We in Unesco are very honoured to be here today and to support this initiative which we consider a model initiative for other countries," said Francesco Banderin, president of Unesco's World Heritage Center.

This is unusual praise for a country more used to being in the news because of tensions in its relations with the outside world. But Libya, an oil-rich state, has been keen to improve ties with the west, and Seif al-Islam, whom many believe is being groomed to succeed his father, has played a big role in that process.

The Green Mountain project, which backers say will create the world's first large-scale conservation and development area, is being billed as his initiative.

He has hired international experts such as the architects Foster+Partners to develop plans for the region.

But his involvement is likely to fuel scepticism that the project is aimed more at helping the international rehabilitation of Libya than anything else. No announcements have been made about the cost of the projector a timeline for itsimplementation.

Sources involved in the launch said the project was still at the "vision" stage, and work on it had only started two months ago.

According to the project's backers the first step will be the creation of an authority with a board of international expert trustees to manage the Green Mountain area.

"The Green Mountain is like the Côte d'Azur 100 years ago," said Stefan Behling, senior partner at Foster-+Partners. "Tourism will come here, because it is unbelievably beautiful and it has the best antiquities. If we don't protect it now, in 50 years it could be all caput."

Mr Behling presented his plans for a region in which urban sprawl was controlled, wind and solar energy provided power, hotel and tourist facilities were sited discreetly and the Mediterranean coastline was kept free of construction.

Foster+Partners will also design the area's first three hotels to be built by a leading Libyan businessman, Hassan Tatanaki, who says he plans to invest up to $1bn (£493m, €725m) in the next two years.

But the absence of figures and the lavish launch with foreign journalists brought in on chartered flights and housed in a specially constructed tent city in the shadow of the Temple of Zeus in Cyrene is bound to fuel doubts that this is aimed largely at polishing the image of Libya and Mr Gadaffi.

Foster+Partners said, however, that they were impressed by Mr Gadaffi's determination to forge ahead.

Others appeared willing to give Libya the benefit of the doubt.

"It will all be in the implementation," said William Oullin, chairman of Barclays Wealth, the private bank. "Even if they do a fraction of this, as long as they do it well, it will definitely put Libya on the map of countries serious about developing heritage tourism."

By ANNA JOHNSON
The Associated Press
Monday, September 10, 2007; 3:53 PM

CYRENE, Libya -- Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's son unveiled an ambitious plan Monday to protect ancient Greek ruins, conserve the country's pristine Mediterranean coastline and draw ecotourists to this former pariah state.

Seif al-Islam Gadhafi's plan is part of an attempt to dramatically change the image of Libya to an ecologically friendly tourist destination, at a time when the country is nearing its longsought political goal: getting into the West's good graces.

Seif al-Islam Gadhafi arrives for the ceremony of the declaration of a sustainable environmental region at the ancient city of Cyrene near the city of al-Bayda, northeastern The younger Gadhafi announced the project at a ceremony inside a 2,200-year-old Greek gymnasium in the ruins of the ancient city of Cyrene, among the largely untouched and unvisited antiquity sites that Libya hopes will pull in foreigners.

“Our intention is to build a complete and sustainable social, cultural, economic and environmental system in which the needs of the present allow for the needs of future generations," Gadhafi said.

Details of the plan were vague. But the intention is to make 2,046 square miles of northeastern Libya _ a region known as the Green Mountain _ an environmentally sustainable region, creating a national park and ecotourism opportunities while excavating and protecting the nearby ancient temples and Mediterranean coast.

The Green Mountain is a virtually unspoiled region of fertile land, gorges and Greek ruins that rival those in Greece and Turkey.

Libya Monday, Sept. 10, 2007. The son of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi unveils an ambitious plan to protect the country's spectacular Greek ruins, conserve its Mediterranean coastline and draw ecotourists to this former pariah state. The push comes as Libya nears a final long-sought step back into Western good graces _ an expected visit by America's top diplomat sometime this winter. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser) (Nasser Nasser - AP)

"Its time now to join developed countries and make a statement that we are also concerned about the environment and culture," Gadhafi, who is known in Libya as "The Engineer," told reporters after the ceremony.

Touted as a reformer, 36-year-old Gadhafi has increasingly been sharing his father's spotlight and reaching out to the West to soften Libya's image and return it to the international mainstream. He has no official government post, but many see him as the man most likely to take power in the North African country when his 65-year-old father steps down or dies. After spending decades as the United States' sworn enemy, Libya is embarking on a political and economic change of heart.

It is hoping to cap its rehabilitation this year with a visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who would be the first U.S. secretary of state to come to Libya since John Foster Dulles in 1953.

Its rogue state status abruptly changed in 2003 when U.N. sanctions imposed 11 years earlier were lifted after the elder Gadhafi announced he was dismantling his nuclear weapons program. That same year, Libya accepted responsibility for the 1988 bombing of Pam Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and agreed to pay restitution to the families of the 270 victims. Last year, the State Department removed Libya from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

The U.S. opened an interests section in Libya in 2004 and last year reopened its embassy for the first time since 1979, when a mob attacked and set fire to the mission.

Leading the push toward putting Libya back on the map is the younger Gadhafi, who recently won praise for helping release five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who were jailed for allegedly infecting Libyan children with HIV.

Those involved with his newest project see it as an opportunity to diversify Libya's economy, which is now dependent on oil for about 95 percent of export earnings and 25 percent of its GDP, according to U.S. government figures.

"Libya has opened up to the world, and tourism will come. Now the question is how to do it in a positive way," said Stefan Behling, an architect who specializes in sustainable development and whose British firm Foster + Partners was commissioned by Gadhafi's son to work on the plan.

But obstacles remain in this country where Moammar Gadhafi has ruled with an iron fist for more than three decades and outsiders have not been welcome.

Details about the Green Mountain project and how its vision would be implemented were vague. Organizers of Monday's ceremony, which featured an array of international archaeologists and conservationists, said the Libyan government was directly involved, though a new body known as the Green Mountain Conservation and Development Authority _ whose board of trustees has not yet been named _ would oversee the project.

No one could say how much the project would cost or how much has already been pledged by the government. Estimates ranged from $2 billion to $5 billion.

At Monday's event, organizers presented models and graphics depicting their ideas, including three small eco-friendly hotels and resorts, but a timeline for the projects was not given.

Despite the lack of specifics, the younger Gadhafi and others involved in the project stressed the importance of preserving Libya's ancient history and natural beauty, including tree-filled mountains and cliffs overlooking the sea, as the country opens its doors to more tourists and investors.

Part of the plan includes pushing tourist and local development further back into the mountains to leave the coast untouched. The three hotels would be set into the hills and remain unseen from the Greek ruins, organizers said. Large-scale tourism would be prohibited.

Renovation of the ancient city of Cyrene, which the Greeks first developed in 631 B.C., would be part of the project. Cyrene was one of the principal cities in the Hellenic world and was later settled by the Romans until it was destroyed by an earthquake in 365, according to UNESCO, which named Cyrene as a World Heritage Site in 1982.

"Libya is blessed with extremely diversified antiquities. But there is an upper limit to the number of tourists that these sites can contain," said Giuma Anag, chairman of Libya's Department of Archaeology.

Gadhafi wore traditional Libyan clothing, including a black hat and light golden scarf, during Monday's tour. He told reporters he spends two months a year in the area and has been dreaming of creating a sustainable region here for a "long time."

"It's part of our process to modernize our country and move forward. ... This treasure is not just for Libyans but for the whole of mankind," he said.

CYRENE, Libya (AFP) — In a country that is mostly desert, Libya wants to preserve a rare verdant region with archaeological treasures from the ravages of looting and encroaching urbanisation.

To meet that ambitious goal the north African country has launched the world's first largescale conservation and sustainable development project in the mountainous region of Djebal Al-Akhdhar (Green Mountain), about 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) from the capital Tripoli. The massive ecological and cultural project, encompassing a region nearly the size of Wales, will be headed by the son of Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi.

"It is time to join developed countries and make a statement that we are also concerned about the environment and culture," said Seif al-Islam Kadhafi at the project launch.

It took place at Libya's ancient Greek city of Cyrene, dating back to 631 BC, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the heart of the Green Mountain region.

Seif al-Islam, wearing traditional clothes, chose an imposing location to declare the country's commitment to sustainable development.

Standing at the foot of the monumental columns of the ancient Temple of Zeus overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, he said that the protected zone would extend for some 5,500 square kilometres (2,000 square miles) along 200 kilometres of coastline, making it the largest project of its kind.

"This treasure is not just for Libyans but for all mankind," he said.

The Libyan government has founded the Green Mountain Conservation and Development Authority, including engineers, archaeologists and experts on the environment and sustainable development, to steer the massive project and secure the necessary foreign investment. The vision for this rare region of Libya includes eco-tourism, conservation of animals and plant life, clean industries and renewable energy.

The regional plan is being developed by the firm of renowned British architect Norman Foster, whose global projects include Beijing Airport, the Millau Viaduct in France, and the restoration of the Reichstag in Berlin.

"This is one of the most beautiful and little known landscapes on Earth," Foster said in a statement, calling it a unique challenge "to establish a sustainable blueprint for future development" in the Green Mountain region.

Such a major undertaking needs "foreign assistance and help," said Seif al-Islam, who heads the Kadhafi Foundation for Development and also Libya's Red Crescent Society. Only about 10 percent of Libya's ancient treasures can be seen today as most of its cultural wealth still needs to be dug up.

"We have promises and I hope a commitment from the European Union to help us with our project to restore and rebuild the ancient cities in Libya," he said.

Joseph Stanislaw, an energy adviser, says the project is unique "because of the scale, size and holistic approach.

"The preservation of the beauty here is the way to develop industries and create a vibrant local economy and maintain the culture of the region."

The cost of a project of this scale will be "billions and billions of dollars," added the president of The JAStanislaw Group. No official cost estimate was announced.

Stanislaw said that financing will be split between foreign investors, the Libyan government and foundations.

The project's timing is critical as the Green Mountain region was on the brink of an environmental and cultural catastrophe, said Jomaa Anag, head of the Libya's department of archaeology.

Forest fires and urbanisation have destroyed vast swathes of the region's forestland, which now amounts to about 180,000 hectares (445,000 acres) compared with 500,000 hectares 20 years ago.

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