Human figures are carved into a dead cedar tree in the Lamartine section of the forest of cedars, Lebanon, 2008. Jamal Saidi/Reuters MER Article Nature and Politics The coronavirus pandemic vividly highlights the fundamental links between people, health and the environment. This issue of Middle East Report on nature and politics probes these co-constituted relationships between people and their environments in the Middle East. The Editors of Issue #296 • 4 min read