Mediterranean forests: Production of management and vulnerability management tools for Mediterranean forest ecosystems to the effects of climate change and enhancement of optimization efforts for goods and services.
Abstract
The Mediterranean forests of the beneficiary countries of the project (Algeria, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey) cover a total area of nearly 19 million hectares. These forests have been and will be subject increasingly to anthropogenic pressures (overgrazing, collection of firewood, fires, agricultural conversions, etc.) and to the effects of climate change (rising temperatures and the frequency of extreme events, decreasing precipitation, parasitic attacks, etc.). Thus, phenomena of deforestation and forest degradation are observed. These issues are all the more marked as the populations are generally highly dependent on ecosystems foresters and forest administrations and managers are facing technical and financial difficulties to manage sustainably these forests. To varying degrees, the forest policies of recipient countries provide answers to these issues related to the sustainable provision of goods and services by Mediterranean forests in a context climate change. However, management strategies woodlands do not sufficiently take into account the impacts of climate change. The value of goods and services provided by forests is not sufficiently recognized, whether at local and national levels, by the other sectors of the economy which benefit (tourism, livestock, water ...), or internationally (Mediterranean forests are thus absent from the negotiations REDD+). This paper describes the regional project 'Optimizing the production of goods and services Mediterranean woodland ecosystems in a context of Global Changes' (2012-16), which is intended to encourage actors to manage and/or restore Mediterranean woodlands with a perspective of sustainable supply of goods and services environmental.