For this occasion Mrs. Pascale Choueiri Saad – publisher and editor in chief of “ Beyond “ – invited the medias, journalists, and concerned persons to participate in the launching ceremony held at the hotel Phoenicia Beirut at Berytus hall on Monday February 27th 2012 at 5 pm.
Mrs. Saad confirmed that “ the project of issuing an environmental magazine bilingually in French and English is only a simple and modest contribution despite its significant financial costs and is rather a very symbolic sign reminding us all that we are called to participate in any type of efforts even those simple and small to contribute not only in the safeguard of the cities or the villages but also the hall planet earth considering that collective efforts usually pays “
“ the aim of this magazine it to offer the best manners to benefit from the natural resources and provide guidance to the people to preserve the same and insure sustainability by preventing their degradation and to showcase the negative effects resulting from the bad exploitation of these resources and their prevention yet to work on changing the mentalities of individuals and groups by teaching them how to treat environment and encouraging the public to participate effectively in caring of environment through medias as the best mean to transmit realities “ she added
She has emphasized that media influences highly the society by spreading collective awareness. In fact the more the media raises the community’s social awareness the enforcing laws and regulations become less and the high social awareness is mitigated. She continued that this magazine will have a very significant role and act as support for all the sectors of the society by fostering the principles of environmental education and motivating the protecting of the environment and its maintenance and the manner of dealing with it.
Back in 2007 Pascale Choueiri Saad helped to save the forests of Lebanon by an innovative initiative as she has designed with her friend Lara Hanna Debs jewels having the form of the cedar of Lebanon and a part of the proceeds earmarked to reforest Lebanese regions devastated by fires.
In 2008, Saad joined the initiative of minister Ziad Baroud to establish the association “ forever green “ to which many environmental activists from both genders and representative of the private sector and financial bodies adhered. It has succeeded owing to its extensive efforts to raise an amount of about 16 Million dollars in order to purchase Sicorsky helicopters to hasten the process of fire extension of forests from the air.
Saad and Debs has edited a book titled “ Green Lebanon “ and donated 100.000 USD from the proceeds of the book for the association Forever green to purchase the helicopters in addition to fire extinction equipments for forests
In 2010 Pascale Choueiri Saad, Lara Hanna Debs and the photograph Clement Tannoury edited the book “ Cedars of Lebanon “ showcasing the history of cedars from a cultural and environmental aspects, the proceeds of this book published by the company “ green cedars “ for the UNDP upon signature of a memorandum of understanding between both parties to rehabilitate the gardens of Sanayeh and Syoufi.
It’s worth to mention that the first issue of the French edition of Beyond shall feature a selection of the best interviews, articles and reportages published in the English edition of the magazine Beyond. Noting that seven issues have been published up to date of the English version and that the magazine in both English and French languages shall be published regularly.