State of Mediterranean Forests 2018 State of Mediterranean Forests 2018 Published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Plan Bleu, Regional Activity Center of UN Environment/Mediterranean Action Plan Rome, 2018 FAO and Plan Bleu. 2018. State of Mediterranean Forests 2018. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome and Plan Bleu, Marseille. The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) or Plan Bleu pour l’Environnement et le Développement en Méditerranée (Plan Bleu) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. 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All requests for translation and adaptation rights, and for resale and other commercial use rights should be made via www.fao.org/contact-us/licence-request or addressed to [email protected]. FAO information products are available on the FAO website (www.fao.org/publications) and can be purchased through [email protected]. Cover photo: Estérel Mountains, France. © Nelly Bourlion Foreword The State of Mediterranean Forests 2018 analyzes the circum-Mediterranean region, a territory encompassing thirty-one countries and a wide range of political, economic, social and environmental contexts. The region has an extremely rich natural and cultural heritage. Here, human and economic development is largely dependent on at times scarce natural resources and a vulnerable environment. Today, human activity has placed substantial pressure on this environment, the impact of which is felt differently in the northern, southern and eastern sub-regions. Based on a bioclimatic definition of Mediterranean forests, the Mediterranean region includes more than 25 million hectares of forests and about 50 million hectares of other wooded lands. These lands are strongly interconnected with urban and agricultural/rural areas. Mediterranean forests and other wooded lands in the region make vital contributions to rural development, poverty alleviation and food security, as well as to the agriculture, water, tourism, and energy sectors. Such contributions are, however, difficult to quantify. Moreover, changes in climate, societies and lifestyles in the Mediterranean could have serious negative consequences for forests, resulting in the potential loss or diminution of those contributions and to a wide range of economic, social and environmental problems. In April 2010, at a meeting held in Antalya, Turkey, members of the Committee on Mediterranean Forestry Questions-Silva Mediterranea sought to address the lack of data on Mediterranean forests and provide a sound basis for their future management. They asked the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), in collaboration with other institutions, to prepare a report on the state of Mediterranean forests. The first edition of the State of Mediterranean Forests, coordinated by Plan Bleu and FAO and including contributions from 21 institutions, was published in 2013 and launched during the Third Mediterranean Forest Week in Tlemcen, Algeria (March 2013). The State of Mediterranean Forests 2013 successfully documented the main questions on Mediterranean forestry and has since become a reference textbook on Mediterranean forests. Its key findings formed the basis for the subsequent Strategic Framework on Mediterranean Forests endorsed by the high-level segment of the Third Mediterranean Forest Week (the Tlemcen Declaration). In order to establish a regional overview, the 2013 edition of the State of Mediterranean Forests relied on systematic data covering all countries in the Mediterranean region. The second edition, while maintaining a regional interest, adopts a more focused geographic and thematic approach. The State of Mediterranean Forests 2018 is the result of a collaborative process involving many different stakeholders from the Mediterranean region. In total, more than 160 individuals have contributed to this volume on a voluntary basis, whether as chapter coordinators, authors or reviewers. Of these, 41 percent are women. Sixty-one percent of the edition’s contributors originate from the northwest Mediterranean, while 39 percent are from the southeast. This new edition of the State of Mediterranean Forests aims to demonstrate the importance of Mediterranean forests to implementing solutions to tackle global issues such as climate change and population increase. The report is divided into five parts. After an introduction, the second part highlights the importance of Mediterranean forests and trees, examined with regard to various factors (area, biomass, roles in the landscape, etc.), with special attention paid to trees outside forests, which are particularly important in the Mediterranean context. Despite the important natural capital provided by Mediterranean forests, they are under jeopardy from climate change and population increase and other subsidiary drivers of forest degradation. The third part of the report outlines a number of forest-based solutions to tackle these threats. The goods and services provided by Mediterranean forests, for example, are a valuable asset on which to base sustainable development efforts. Forest and landscape iii restoration, adaptation of forests and adaptation using forests, climate change mitigation, and conserving biodiversity are complementary approaches that can be successfully implemented in the Mediterranean region to address the drivers of forest degradation to the benefit of populations and the environment. In its fourth part, the report outlines how to create the conditions necessary to scale up and replicate these forest-based solutions across the Mediterranean region. These include changing the way we see the role of forests in the economy, putting in place relevant policies, more widespread participatory approaches and improved governance, a recognition of the economic value of the goods and services provided by forests and, ultimately, creating appropriate financial incentives and tools. Mediterranean forests also have a global role in helping countries to meet their international commitments on forests, particularly the Sustainable Development Goals (as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development) and the objectives of the three Rio Conventions. We hope and expect the State of Mediterranean Forests 2018 will prove a useful tool in promoting and highlighting this role, while also supporting efforts specific to the Mediterranean region. We wish you a pleasant read. Hiroto Mitsugi Elen Lemaître-Curri Assistant Director-General Director of Plan Bleu FAO Forestry Department MAP/UNEP iv Contents Foreword iii Acronyms and abbreviations xii Contributors xv Acknowledgments xix I Introduction 1 1 The Mediterranean region's development and trends: framework aspects 2 Considerable natural and cultural resources 2 Some socioeconomic disparities 6 A region increasingly under pressure 10 A governance system constantly evolving 15 II The Mediterranean landscape: importance and threats 18 2 Contribution of Mediterranean forests to the Global Agenda 21 Introduction 21 Mediterranean forests and the Sustainable Development Goals 22 Mediterranean forests and international commitments 26 Regional Mediterranean forest initiatives which contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals 28 Conclusions 30 3 Importance of Mediterranean forests 31 The extent of the Mediterranean region 31 Forest definitions and definition of the Mediterranean forest 36 Forest resources in the Mediterranean 38 Land use change and pressure 44 Conclusions 48 4 Trees outside forests in the Mediterranean region 51 Introduction 51 TOF systems in the Mediterranean region 52 Historical relevance of TOF in the region 60 Current trends and dynamics 63 Policies and governance 66 Threats and challenges to the conservation of TOF 70 Perspectives: expected role to be played by TOF in the Mediterranean region towards the fulfilment of the Global Agenda 71 5 Drivers of degradation and other threats 72 Introduction: Mediterranean forests at stake 72 Underlying (indirect) causes of degradation 73 Direct causes of degradation and principal agents 79 Consequences of underlying and direct causes of degradation 82 Geographical and temporal degradation trends: facing the challenge 89 III Mediterranean forest-based solutions 90 6 Human needs and ecosystem services