The EU-Funded Medcoastland Thematic Network and its Findings in Combating Land Degradation in the Mediterranean Region

Abstract

Land degradation in the Mediterranean is as old as its history. There is ample evidence for instance showing that ancient Greeks cut their forests to expand cultivation on the sloping lands causing thus extreme erosion and leaving behind abandoned badlands. In the area of Aleppo, Syria called “hundred dead seas”, archaeological surveys demonstrate that 1–2 m of soil was washed away during the first century AD following invasion of several armies and massive deforestation. The same is true for eastern Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon showing evidence of forest clearing since Roman times. Lebanese cedars reached not only the Egyptian Pharaohs but they were used even in the Balkans for building deluxe homes.

In its closest meaning land degradation brings inefficiency to the natural ecosystem in performing its functions and services, including both productivity and environmental ones. The resource base is made of several components, including climate, biosphere, water, soils, etc, and is under continuous pressure from natural events (some of them disastrous) as well as from human-induced pressures. These last could mitigate/reverse or accelerate the intensity of degradation. As long as all the components of the resource base are included in the analyses, we are discussing land degradation. Once the same pressures are imposed only on the soil component, then we are talking soil degradation that in its narrow sense means physical, chemical and biological degradation that inevitably brings inefficiency to the soil itself to perform its productivity and ecological functions.

Desertification is also land degradation but according to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is confined within well-defined climatic domains that include arid, semi arid, and dry sub humid regions of the world resulting from various factors including climate variation and human activities. More closely desertification relates to drylands having an aridity index of 0.05–0.65 (excluding polar and sub-polar regions). Aridity index is calculated as the ratio of mean annual precipitation (PPT) to mean annual potential evapotranspiration (PET). Experience shows that scientists and policy/decisions makers alike use the terminology that better fits their agendas (including political ones). All the abovementioned forms of resource base degradation are present in the Mediterranean.

The European Commission (EC) has been very active in its Mediterranean policies and has tackled a number of environmental issues dealing with sustainable growth, natural resources management and integrated rural development, to point out a few. The need for these interventions derives from a set of factors ranging from food security, migration, economic development, as well as peace and political stability in the region.

One of the projects funded by the EC under the 5^th Framework Programme is also the MEDCOASTLAND Thematic Network whose main goal is Mediterranean coordination and dissemination of land conservation management to combat land degradation for the sustainable use of natural resources in the region with special emphases on coastal areas. The network brings together 13 countries (from northern Mediterranean Europe, North Africa, Middle and Near East) making a total of 32 partners, of whom 17 are research and educational institutions, 7 represent decision makers and the remaining 8 are farmer’s associations and/or non governmental organisations (NGOs). The International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM) through the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari (MAI-B), in Italy is coordinating the project that runs from October 2002 until May 2007.

MEDCOASTLAND endorses the ecosystem-based approach in natural resource management by giving equal importance to both biophysical and socio-economic features. Conclusions show that the fight against land degradation could be successful if land users meet their basic needs through income generating activities and if a good balance is found between bottom-up and top-down decision making and last but not least, if policy, legislation, and the institutional framework make their way towards implementation. Above all a stakeholder approach is needed where every one is aware of its duties and responsibilities.