Following the success of the first edition launched in 2013, the new edition of the FAO-Plan Bleu publication: “State of Mediterranean Forests 2018 (SoMF)” was issued in November 2018.

The report provides an overview of the status of forest resources in the Mediterranean region, which, with 88 million hectares of forests, represent two percent of the global forest area. The region’s forest area increased by two percent between 2010 and 2015, resulting in a rise of 1.8 million ha, but it has also been considerably affected by degradation and is increasingly in jeopardy from climate change, population rise, wildfires and water scarcity.

There are 80 million ha of degraded lands – including forests – in the Mediterranean region and the drivers of degradation are represented mostly by land abandonment and fires in the north, and by overexploitation of fuelwood, overgrazing, and population pressure in the south-east.

Forest and Landscape Restoration (FLR) is an innovative and particularly relevant approach to address the drivers of degradation in the Mediterranean region. This approach involves trade-offs between agricultural and forestry production and environmental conservation, ensuring the best possible integration at the landscape level. FLR fully recognizes that forests are a component of the landscape that interact with other elements. Forest restoration aims to restore a degraded forest to its original state – that is, to re-establish the presumed structure, productivity and species diversity of the original forest. In the context of climate change, FLR may be combined with adaptation techniques to anticipate changes the ecosystem would have undergone had it not been degraded. FLR complements forest restoration with participatory approaches involving stakeholders in all affected land-use sectors to manage the dynamic and often complex interactions between people, natural resources and land uses.

Given the variety of goods and services provided by Mediterranean forests and the multiplicity of actors involved in their management, as well as the numerous opportunities for forest restoration in the Mediterranean, FLR is a particularly relevant forest-based solution for the region.

The report urges countries to scale-up the restoration of forests and landscapes, recognising the role of ecological restoration, reforestation, rehabilitation and afforestation efforts in the region in maintaining the ecological and socio-economic functions of Mediterranean forests and agrosilvopastoral landscapes that benefit people in both rural and urban areas. Since the turn of the century, the FLR concept has built upon these efforts and wealth of experience not only to counteract deforestation, fragmentation and degradation but also to contribute to the conservation of ecological and economic sustainability in rural areas.

The policies of a number of Mediterranean countries already include pledges related to forest and landscape restoration. In addition to efforts at national level, several sub-regional and regional initiatives are jointly tackling common issues affecting countries. A new regional Mediterranean initiative on FLR has been initiated based on the Agadir Commitment, under which, in 2017, nine countries pledged to restore a total of eight million ha by 2030.

Restoration – including ecological restoration and forest and landscape restoration – will play a key role in the Mediterranean region in the context of the Rio Conventions and other international commitments, including the Paris Agreement and the Bonn Challenge. The implementation of the Agadir Commitment will bolster country efforts to restore their degraded ecosystems and, at the same time, meet their targets. Recognising the importance of the Bonn Challenge, the Agadir Commitment will reinforce cooperation and existing regional restoration efforts to adapt Mediterranean forests, landscapes and populations to climate change, and mitigate its negative effects. It will also help to attract additional financial support to increase FLR investments with a view to meeting Paris Agreement targets.

The report highlights that current international commitments and the global agenda call for a coordinated regional strategy based on the recognition of Mediterranean forests’ environmental, social and economic value. Mediterranean countries are already responding with a renewed engagement in regional and international activities, but further cooperation is required to establish a collective effort toward an enhanced regional agenda.

Learn more about FLR in the Mediterranean region, download the State of Mediterranean Forests (SoFM) 2018

For more information contact: [email protected] and click here.

Valentina Garavaglia (FAO)