@FAO - a pine forest in Lebanon

Agadir, Morocco 23 March 2017

Key experts from the Food and Agriculture Oraganisation for the United Nations (FAO) and their counterparts marked the celebration of FAO's regional office for the Near East and North Africa on the International Day of Forests 2017 in Agadir (Morocco) on 21 March by discussing ways to improve Forest Health in the Mediterranean and the Near East Regions.

Aiming at promoting the awareness of  forest health and ecosystem services in the Mediterranean and the NENA regions, the event was a platform to showcase case studies on systematic monitoring of forest dieback and associated pest outbreaks, development of suitable and feasible management measures  for invasive species and strengthening of institutional and technical capacities. 

The event was inaugurated by Mr Mohamed Endichi, Director of Combating Desertification and Nature Protection at the High Commission on Water, Forestry and combatting desertification (HCWFCD), followed by an overview on  climate-induced  forest decline and tree dieback in the Near East and North Africa region AbdelHamied Hamied, FAORNE Senior Forestry Officer.

Mohamed Habib Ben Jamaa from Tunisia, Coordinator of the Near East Network on Forest Health (NENFIS) and Invassive Species, gave an over view of the work of  NENFIS as an efficient platform for knowledge sharing and stressing on the importance of regional collaboration on  in area ofForest Health and Invasive Species .

Fouad Assali, Head of Forest Protection at HCWFCD shared the main results and lessons learnt from  Forest health monitoring system in Morocco, then Chadi Mohanna presented the latest findings on Forest pest issues in Lebanon.

According to FAO  senior forestry officer at the regional office for the Near East and North Africa, Abdelhamid Hamid: “Holding this event during the 5^th Mediterranean Forest Week and in concurance with  global IDF celebrations proves the uniqueness of the topic. In fcat, if we’re aiming at benfiting from the green renewable energy from forests, we need to have healthy forests.”

He added: “Outbreaks of forest pests damage over five million hectares from in Mediterranean region alone, which represents over 14% of the global damage and almost 6% of the total forest area of the region. This cannot continue unaccounted for if we aim at achieving sustainable use of forests, for energy, food and medicine.”

He noted that although many factors contribute to the development of forest pests, our region is “particularly vulnerable due to the high degrees of aridity, extreme temperature variability and the tangible impacts of climate change.”

As Climate change models predict increased aridity and temperatures across large areas of the Mediterranean, Near East and West Asia regions in the coming decades, they will likely aggravate forest stress. The ripple effect is dangerous in the forest context, as once the climate-triggered dieback starts, other factors such as insect pests or pathogens can amplify mortality, as seen with Pinus sylvestris forests in the Alps and Quercus forests on the Iberian Peninsula. In recent years climate-induced forest stress and dieback apparently have been increasing in North, South and Eastern Mediterranian region with many cases recently reported in Algeria, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Lebanon, Morocco and Saudi Arabia.