Mediterranean Echo Newsletter of the WWF Mediterranean Programme • February 2015
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www .discoverdinarides.co Xxxxxx xxxx M © WWF Mediterranean NEWSLETTER February 2015 Mediterranean echo Newsletter of the WWF Mediterranean Programme • February 2015 adria’S ParKS Unite in netWorK oF Protected areaS WWF Mediterranean is pleased to announce the official establishment of the regional association Parks Dinarides - network of protected areas of Dinarides, a major result for the WWF Dinaric Arc Parks project. In December representatives of 36 protected areas from the Adria region elected the president and governing council of the Association which will facilitate the exchange and development of mutual projects and promotion. This follows on from the decisive step taken at the 3rd Dinaric Arc Parks International Conference, held in Brijuni National Park, Croatia, in October, which was brought to a successful close with the signing of an agreement by 60 parks committing to take part in Parks Dinarides. Gathering 150 people from 13 countries, the conference focused on how protected areas can safeguard the region’s natural capital and generate benefits for people. The three-day event was dominated by the topic of sustainable tourism in protected areas. The newly-elected president of the Europarc Federation, Ignace Schops, Green Nobel Prize winner and Al Gore’s ambassador, inspired participants with his ideas for improving the parks they work in. WWF is optimistic that the Parks Dinarides Association will become an important vehicle for regional cooperation, bringing out the best in the protected areas of the region and helping them work together to conserve a common heritage. Leon Kebe, Dinaric Arc Parks project manager © WWF Mediterranean extensive Pas benefit assessment demonstrates value of nature WWF recently completed a protected areas benefit assessment in 58 parks, representing over 50% of all protected territory in the Dinaric Arc. It has yielded a huge dataset on the wider benefits that protected areas provide. The parks’ greatest economic resources are tourism, water, forests and jobs. This assessment has offered park managers new insight into stakeholders’ perceptions of real park values. PA benefit assessments provide arguments for better protection and create dialogue with resource use sectors, politicians and businesses. Park manages will decide how best to use the Kasandra-Zorica Ivanić, WWF Conservation assessment findings: to reflect on the potential for economic development in Officer, presents values of protected areas their management plans; to communicate positive values to stakeholders; to at the 3rd Dinaric Arc Parks conference. See www.discoverdinarides.com/en/. create or improve park interpretation and education programmes. 1 Build a future for Mediterranean landscapes 5 adria Pas win european charter for Portugal Sustainable tourism © H. Jungius / WWF Five Adria protected areas won the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism in PAs last December. The Charter – awarded to Una National Park (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Lonjsko Polje and Medvednica Nature Parks (Croatia), Fruška Gora National Park and Gornje Podunavlje Special Nature Reserve (Serbia) – is awarded by the Europarc Federation. The award is important because it helps develop and establish ties between various segments of society. Only 131 of over 28,000 protected areas in the EU have so far won this recognition. ForeSt certiFication improveS the condition oF Streams http://bit.ly/1FxNLkD The WWF Green Heart of Cork project in Portugal promotes the sustainable management of cork oak landscapes through financial incentives to cork oak landowners for adhering to Forest Mediterranean forests: some questions Stewardship Council (FSC) Certification. Well-managed cork oak landscapes provide valuable ecosystem services including long- Mediterranean forests are crucial term carbon storage. Researchers within the project have recently to the wellbeing of around 460 found that certification positively affects the ecological condition million people. Although much of streams in Mediterranean evergreen oak woodlands. In areas has been said about the role under forest certification, managers and landowners comply with tropical forests and deforestation management practices that require them to remove or reduce the are playing in climate change at a main causes of stream degradation, allowing riparian habitats to global level, much less is known recover. Within landscapes with large and increasing areas under about Mediterranean forests. How forest certification these positive effects are likely to spread across important are they to sustainable the hydrographic network. development? How is the degradation of forests connected [email protected] to the increased frequency of water scarcity and drought events in the did you know...? Mediterranean? In what ways does Mediterranean forest cover protect Cork is the 6th most significant non-timber forest product us from extreme weather events? globally. Portugal is the country with the largest area of cork oak, These are crucial questions which producing 50% of the world’s cork. By November 2014 there were 349,345 hectares of certified forests in Portugal which include WWF is addressing so that we can © Wild Wonders o more effectively protect remaining around 110,000ha of cork oak forests. Mediterranean forests and better integrate their conservation in the new path towards a sustainable F e planet. urope / [email protected] s . Widstrand / WWF See the campaign for our flagship project in Portugal on cork forests for Earth Hour 2015 http://bit.ly/1C4Qpua 2 Build a future for Mediterranean landscapes Green jobs in tunisia Food WaSte: ShocKinG FactS and FigureS WWF is running an important project on green jobs in northwest We know that many of the things we do – using a car, heating and cooling Tunisia, which will launch our buildings – contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. It is less common sustainable small local businesses knowledge, however, that the food we produce is responsible for around directly related to 3 protected 30% of the total emissions resulting from human activity, greater than areas*. The businesses will be led those generated by the entire global transport and electricity sectors. Our by young unemployed graduates food is one of the primary causes of climate change. Can we do anything from the targeted regions, and about it? Of course we can, beginning with the huge quantity of food we should involve local people. waste. More than 60 young people were The figures are shocking. Currently around 952 million people in the chosen to take part in a training world suffer from hunger. More than 7 million children die each year session in the small village of Ain of starvation. The volume of edible food wasted globally each year is Draham in January. Led by an estimated at 1.3 billion tonnes – enough to feed around 3 billion people. ecotourism expert from Jordan, participants explored Bni Mtir, a • The carbon footprint of food wastage is estimated at 3.3 billion tonnes unique forestry village, and were of CO2 emissions (including emissions resulting from deforestation introduced to some basic rules for and land-use change) per year. tour guides. This was the second • The total volume of water (250km3) used each year to produce food training session in a process which that is wasted is equivalent to three times the volume of Lake Geneva. will select and train a group of • Almost 30% (1.4 billion hectares of land) of the world’s agricultural the candidates to be the leaders of area is used annually to produce food that is lost or wasted. green businesses. Imagine leaving the supermarket with 10 bags of shopping and throwing [email protected] 3 of them directly into the rubbish bin. This is what happens, effectively, * Funded by the Swiss Foundation DROSOS, the every day throughout the world. In many countries of the Mediterranean project aims to create small businesses in 3 PAs: Cap more than 1 million tonnes of food is wasted every year. Food is the timely Serrat/Cap Negro, Nefza; Oued Zen, Ain Draham; El Feija, Ghardimaou. central theme of the 2015 Milan Universal Exposition Feeding the Planet, © WWF Energy for Life. In the Mediterranean, WWF is deeply involved in this area with the OnePlanetFood programme and with initiatives concerning M editerranean the environmental impact of food supply chains, their unsustainability, how we might measure their impact on the planet’s biodiversity. Expo 2015 is a unique opportunity for us to reflect on the world’s plight and search for ways to bring about a reversal of the current situation. This is the change that WWF, as a civil society participant at Expo 2015, would like to inspire. www.oneplanetfood.info © K. Havia / WWF-Finland 3 Secure Mediterranean water resources © a. hundreds meet for ramsar in africa s ta M More than 100 participants from en K 47 African countries and 10 ovic / international organisations met for wwf the Ramsar Regional Preparation COP Meeting for Africa, held in Hammamet, Tunisia, in November. Between discussions on wetlands conservation, participants enjoyed a visit to WWF’s education and information centre on Tunisian Wetlands. The community accreditation “Ramsar City Label”, promoted by WWF, was discussed and adopted by the African countries, and will be among the resolutions presented during the WWF Playground World wetlands day 12th Conference of Parties in June. During the latest Belgrade Flower For World Wetlands Day (2 [email protected] Festival more than 100 curious February) WWF organised a series