Environmental deterioration costs Lebanon some $800 million annually and takes the heaviest toll on water sources and coastlines across the country, warned experts speaking at a workshop on environmental planning Wednesday.

Adviser to Environment Ministry Ghassan Sayah said the losses constitute a massive 3.7 percent of national income.

"These numbers reveal the increasing pressure on natural resources due to arbitrary urbanization putting at risk forests and agricultural land," he said. Sayah said the ministry is currently executing two internationally funded projects.

The first focuses on developing a system for monitoring natural resources and another aims to create marine reserves along the Lebanese coastline.

The ministry, he added, working toward funding a third "environmental government" project that develops the capacities of various ministries in the environmental field.