There is little indication that a fenced-off construction site overlooking the Mediterranean about 40 kilometres north of Beirut is at the heart of a conservation dispute that has even drawn comment from President Joseph Aoun.

Work on the private villa, perched on a cliff in the town of Amchit, was halted by a judicial order last month following protests by activists, who say it threatens a cave below that is Lebanon’s best known breeding site for the endangered Mediterranean monk seal.

It is a case that has shed light on the wider ecological problems in Lebanon, abuse of the environment by a privileged elite and the privatisation of the coastline. The owners of the site want to build a house extending three floors down “without really caring for the habitat of the seals,” said Najat Saliba, a member of parliament's environmental committee and expert on climate change and pollution control.

An under-construction villa in Lebanon has put endangered seals at risk 01:05

“What we are trying to get them to do is do an environmental impact assessment; make sure you protect the sea life and habitat, and then you can build your property. There's nothing wrong with that,” Ms Saliba said.

Paul Abi Rached, who heads the Terre Liban environmental activist group that has led efforts to stop the villa’s construction, said the assessment should have been carried out beforehand because the area is the habitat of an endangered species.

Lebanon’s long, rocky coastline is an ideal habitat for monk seals. The cold, clean water in the cave in Amchit is ideal for female seals to deliver their pups away from possible predators.

The monk seal is considered one of the world’s rarest and most endangered marine mammals, and is the only pinniped native to the Mediterranean Sea, according to the Turkey-based Mediterranean Seal Research Group.

In a letter to Terre Liban, shared with The National, the Mediterranean Seal Research Group said the continued degradation of habitat, as well as the increased human presence and pollution, “jeopardises the long-term viability of monk seal recolonisation in Amchit and threatens the survival of a species already at the brink of extinction”.

Mediterranean monk seals are among the most endangered marine mammals, requiring special habi