Mediterranean Echo Newsletter of the WWF Mediterranean Programme • February 2015

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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 WWF © 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 / Jungius H. © 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 o Wonders Wild © 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

planet. / urope [email protected] S . Widstrand / WWF / Widstrand . 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,

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 / Havia K. ©

3 Secure Mediterranean water resources © a. 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 NGOs form wetland conservation youngsters learned about the of events throughout the Adria network importance of the water footprint, region to draw attention to the biodiversity and endangered exceptional importance of wetlands The MedWet Civil Society Network species. While children did for nature and society. Wetlands was officially launched at the experiments with water, saved protect us from devastating floods, Ramsar Regional Meeting for fish from a maze of pollution and clean our water and provide Africa in November. 18 NGOs danced with water lilies, their resources and benefits. Over the from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia parents were introduced to the past century we have drained and agreed to work together to promote undiscovered world of Dinaric Arc lost more than 90% of wetland the conservation and wise use of Parks, the Amazon of Europe, and habitats in Europe. The Dinaric priority selected wetlands and much more. Arc is no exception, although there signed a Charter of commitment. [email protected] are still several crucially important [email protected] wetlands that need to be protected. Hutovo Blato and the Neretva river The Mura-Drava-Danube Biosphere E-flow presented for the first time in delta could be lost forever Reserve (Croatia-Serbia), Livansko Morocco polje Ramsar site (BiH), Hutovo Over the last 35 years, the water Blato Nature Park (BiH) and Skadar For the first time in Morocco the level at Hutovo Blato Nature Lake National Park (Montenegro) concept of ecological flow was Park in Bosnia and Herzegovina need sustainable management presented to water managers, has decreased by 50% due to and reliable sources of finance. along with strategies to build hydropower developments in the These wetlands are the hubs of their knowledge of this approach Neretva river basin to which it is biodiversity in the region and have to freshwater management. At a connected. Bird populations have huge ecotourism potential for local workshop organized by WWF, in decreased by over 30%. WWF people. October, representatives of public presented the “Action plan for the [email protected] institutions, dam managers and revitalization of ecosystems of researchers studied the legal and Hutovo Blato” in October to raise institutional basis for introducing awareness of the gravity of the e-flow to Moroccan legislation, situation and to put forward the methods of implementation and urgent concrete actions needed to the feasibility for the application of prevent this disaster. e-flow to the Sebou basin. [email protected] [email protected]

4 Equip Mediterranean ecosystems to adapt to climate change © ©

m Solar power in Mura-Drava-Danube . ben abdel ben . Through cooperation between WWF and one of the world’s leading k ri producers of solar panels, five m / /

wwf solar power plants were donated to protected areas in Europe, one of them to the Transboundary Biosphere Reserve Mura-Drava- Danube. The plant will produce enough energy to power the needs of people working on the Reserve and will result in savings in electricity costs. The solar power sustainable tourism growing in morocco plant will also be used to show visitors and the local community Mass tourism is one of the main causes of pollution in the the benefits of sustainable and local Mediterranean, the world’s leading tourist destination with over 300 electricity production. million tourists per year. The Horizon 2020 Initiative, a major EU [email protected] Research and Innovation programme, tackles the main sources of pollution, including tourism, towards significantly reducing pollution in the Mediterranean by the year 2020. Tourism occupies a prominent Global agreement on climate change place in Morocco’s economic and financial structure, as the second largest contributor to the national GDP and second job creator. Such Research proves that climate strategic importance accounts for Morocco’s commitment to achieving change is occurring, human the high environmental standards required by international visitors, activities are causing it, and it is to become the leading destination in the region. WWF is working in hitting ecosystems and affecting Morocco with an increasing number of local tour operators, travel people in every corner of the globe. agencies, and hotels who have begun to apply truly dedicated ecological After 20 years of negotiations and and sustainable principles and practices with the support of the increasing emissions, it is time to government. act. Over the last 15 months, as part of our global campaign on [email protected] energy – Seize Your Power –WWF has been asking governments and Local sustainable development in Chefchaouen financial institutions to phase out As part of the capacity building programme for achieving H2020 fossil fuels and invest in renewable objectives, WWF organized a study visit to the National Association of energy. Events such as the people’s Sheep and Goat Cheese (pictured above) in Chefchaouen. The Association climate march last September, defends locally traditional livestock and cheese production techniques making history as the largest and is a good example of sustainable tourism, in line with the principles public movement ever on climate of preservation, conservation, enhancement and value of local cultural change, will keep up international heritage. Participants – from Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Palestine, Jordan momentum for tackling the climate and Algeria – spent 3 days studying the legislation and government crisis in the run-up to a global deal policies which promote sustainable tourism and have had a positive being agreed in Paris later in 2015. economic impact on Chefchaouen’s local communities. They also wwf.panda.org/what_we_do/ footprint/climate_carbon_energy discussed challenges and opportunities for sustainable tourism in their

own countries, developing professional networks and building common © P activities to replicate the Moroccan experience. Jeline .

[email protected] k / WWF WWF / G er m any

5 Equip Mediterranean ecosystems to adapt to climate change •

N be formally endorsed by the end of ational ational March. This is a major achievement, representing a common vision for G eograp each country in the development of renewable energy sources, in h ic ic

particular solar. Most important, p S toc the roadmaps detail what needs ro k /Jo to be done to increase the use of g ra h

n n renewable energy. B urc [email protected] mm h a m e e / WWF /

SHAAMS and Earth Hour •

In 2014 the SHAAMS project joined e b

Energy roadmaps towards sustainability Earth Hour, the WWF event that r u

mobilizes hundreds of millions 2015 ary WWF and other SHAAMS of people across the world every project* partners have called on year. For Earth Hour 2015, the governments and decision makers SHAAMS project team is working to move faster towards the use of with partners and schools in Spain, renewable sources and in particular Italy, Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan solar energy. To support this organizing workshops and activities process, WWF is working with a related to solar energy. As part team of experts to create energy of Earth Hour, students will be roadmaps which identify the invited to join a video competition political, legislative, institutional “Use Your Power”, to engage young and financial frameworks most filmmakers in producing innovative suitable for promoting the effective short films which show the development of solar energy. WWF advantages of solar energy and its recently worked with stakeholders uses in everyday life. on developing national energy roadmaps in Lebanon, Egypt and [email protected] Jordan, which were presented and discussed in each country * SHAAMS (Strategic Hubs for the Acceleration of the Mediterranean Solar Sector) seeks to establish between October and December. governance solutions identifying innovative, transferable and sustainable solar energy policies. The final version of the energy The SHAAMS project promotes the active roadmaps, including all feedback participation of public administration bodies, research centres, private firms and civil society and input from stakeholders, will organizations. m

Why we are here editerranean. If there is no URL To stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and to build a future in which humans live in harmony and nature.

OR p anda.or Why we are here To stop the degradation of the planet’s natural environment and With URL - Regular to build a future in which humans live in harmony with nature. mediterranean.panda.org g