At the margins of the Fifth Mediterranean Forest Week (20 to 24 March 2017, Agadir, Morocco), the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (Biodiversity Convention) organized a capacity-building workshop for Mediterranean and other countries on restoring forests and other ecosystems to support the achievement of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. The workshop was organized through the Forest Ecosystem Restoration Initiative (FERI), supported by the Korea Forest Service of the Government of the Republic of Korea. 

The workshop gathered government representatives and experts from 11 countries – Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Jordan, Lebanon, Malta, Morocco, Palestine, the Sudan and Tunisia – to review their national commitments relating to Aichi Biodiversity Targets 5 (to halve the rate of natural habitat loss), 14 (to safeguard essential ecosystem services) and 15 (to restore 15 percent of degraded ecosystems), and their stages of implementation. The workshop was framed by the principles and key activities of the Short Term Action Plan for Ecosystem Restoration, adopted at the 13th meeting of the Parties to the Biodiversity Convention (2 to 17 December 2016, Cancun, Mexico).  

There is some urgency to implementing these Aichi Biodiversity Targets for the Mediterranean forests, woodlands and scrub biome, which are highly biodiverse and provide a habitat for many species. Ecosystems in this region are subject to increasing pressures from population growth, urban expansion and climate change. With historically high levels of degradation and high population densities, the interpretation of these targets may have to focus on ecosystem functions, improving the quality and connectivity of high-biodiversity areas, including areas that deliver important ecosystem services such as water, and also focus on avoiding further loss or reduction of natural ecosystems. 

With the sessions of the Fifth Mediterranean Week providing a backdrop to the discussions, participants engaged in a review of their national commitments, assessing the extent to which they were specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound (‘SMART’). Staff from the Biodiversity Convention presented a regional report “Rapid Assessment of Progress Under Aichi Biodiversity Targets 5, 14 and 15 in the Mediterranean region” and highlighted best practice examples of SMART targets in the region. There were also on-line exercises for participants to review concepts, tools and approaches taken. 

Each country received a dossier containing a nationally specific assessment of the information towards the progress on their national commitments associated with Targets 5 and 15. Nationally-specific reviews of national commitments, under the Biodiversity Convention and other environmental agreements, provided the basis for discussing the importance of aligning the implementation of these agreements with the national scale. National targets and associated action plans under the Biodiversity Convention, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the UN Convention on Combating Desertification, as well as the Strategic Framework on Mediterranean Forests, all involve managing ecosystems. While these commitments and actions should be as specific and quantitative as possible, they must also promote synergies and coherence when implemented. 

Experts from partner organizations were invited to present relevant themes such as the Red List of Ecosystems (IUCN), which provides a framework for assessing the level of degradation and the risk of collapse of a variety of ecosystems. This framework was welcomed by participants as a relevant decision-support tool for prioritizing actions under Aichi Targets 5 and 15, but many acknowledged that there is insufficient national data to meaningfully undertake such assessments. Success stories from the field were also showcased, with a presentation on the Herdade Freio do Meio in Portugal, which is a farming estate that reconciles sustainable production of a variety of agricultural products with cork extraction and nature conservation. Participants also took part in interactive exercises, including the Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology (IUCN and WRI). This exercise presented a challenge within the definition of national restoration priorities, which are the reconciliation of the views of a range of stakeholders on the objectives of restoration actions.

Participants concluded the meeting with key messages that underlined common challenges such as gathering baseline data on the state and trends of ecosystems, agreeing to clear definitions and metrics for concepts such as ‘degradation’ or ‘natural forest’, and determining the objectives of restoration and indicators to evaluate progress. Participants also emphasized that these exchanges are valuable for the opportunity to learn from the experience of other countries facing similar ecological issues.

For more information, contact [email protected] or visit the website: www.feri-biodiversity.org

 Catalina Santamaria and Blaise Bodin

(Biodiversity Convention Secretariat)