In the remote eastern region of Libya whose bleak hills resemble a lunar landscape, the Green Mountain Sustainable Development Area is the latest in a spate of Libyan projects that form a sort of global coming-out party for a country that for decades was a pariah.

Over the weekend, fleets of white Mercedes vans ferried hundreds of guests along newly paved roads for a lamb dinner among the ruins and signing ceremony, presided over by Saif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, son of President Muammar el-Qaddafi. In an area where many people are illiterate, newly erected signs in crisp white and blue say “Airport” in Arabic and English. Development is definitely coming.

A group of wealthy Libyans and a bevy of consultants are planning to create a carbon neutral green development zone in Cyrene, an area the size of Wales centred on ancient Greek ruins. It will cater primarily to tourism and serve as a model for environmentally friendly design, they say.

But the intention is clearly broader than that. “They want to show the world that Libya has turned a corner — that they can fit into the modern world,” George Joffe, an expert on Libya at Cambridge University, said.

Saif Qaddafi referred to this important subtext in a press conference. “In our area, it’s not common practice to talk about environment and emissions and the like,” he said, surrounded by slick architectural models displayed in a Greek gymnasium dating from the seventh century BC. “It’s time now to join the developed countries, so we make this statement about environment and culture.” Then he added with a hint of a grin: “We are civilised”.
For the inauguration ceremony, hundreds of people were flown to a remote landing strip for a party and signing ceremony, with music piped in from the Temple of Zeus at sunset. Experts on waste recycling and sustainable farming, architects, engineers, and hoteliers mingled with royalty. All were hoping to play a role in the project. On paper, the Green Mountain project is ambitious — although on paper is the only place it exists — and even many expressed some skepticism that the project would materialise.

Its energy is to come from the wind and solar power. Its waste is to be recycled, its trash converted to biofuel. Its buildings — resorts, hotels, villas and villages for locals — are to blend seamlessly into the rugged landscape. The plan will protect Libya’s fantastic Greek and Roman ruins, as well its fragile coastal ecosystem — one of the last remaining natural areas of the Mediterranean — from the perils of haphazard development.

It will also be a good investment. With a brand name British architectural firm, Foster and Associates, designing the “Green Mountain Conservation and Development” zone, and Unesco helping with restorations, there is no shortage of star power to encourage a project that was conceived less than two months ago, and is still in the “vision” stage, as its organisers admit.

The tense relations between Libya and the West have been thawing for several years, since Tripoli renounced weapons of mass destruction and paid billions of dollars in compensation for the deaths of 270 people in the bombing of a Pan Am passenger plane over Scotland in 1988. A Libyan agent was convicted in the attack.
Joe Stanislaw, a Boston-based consultant on sustainable development said, “Libya is showing that even as an oil producing country, they can lead in facing world challenges like global warming.”

“One had to assume that there is a lot of jockeying for position right now, and among Qaddafi’s sons, all want to demonstrate an innovative view of how to be part of the world,” George Joffe said. Saif, the sponsor of the Green Mountain Project, is certainly the current leader, observers say.

British educated, well dressed and fluent in English, Saif has become the go-to guy, a kind of bridge between the centres of power in Libya and the West. His Qaddafi Foundation, based in Tripoli and London, was active in helping to gain the release of the Bulgarian nurses, hiring Western experts to testify in the case, and ultimately raised the compensation of $1 million per child that secured the medics’ release.

Saif Qaddafi noted that the project would bring tens of thousands of jobs and small industry to a now impoverished area. In a speech filled with talk of creeping deserts, deforestation and carbon emissions, he said that the project “had the potential to support the local economy based on environmental and cultural tourism”.
The project’s brochure is filled with photos and renderings that portray it as a green, upmarket version of Thailand’s luxurious Phuket resort — though it is not clear where the tourists will come from, and basic infrastructure like an airport remains to be built. Still, some at the festivities praised the effort. “They’ve got 1,000 miles of undeveloped coastline which they are trying to develop in an environmentally friendly way,” said Anthony Pearce, an environmental consultant, of the 1,600-kilometre untouched area.
IHT