Activities of the Silva Mediterranea Secretariat in the first semester of 2024

During the first six months of 2024, Silva Mediterranea has participated in key forestry events in the region.  

Medforval meeting to Promote Forest and Landscape Restoration activities in the Mediterranean Region  

Medforval is a network of Mediterranean forest landscapes renowned for their ecological value, coordinated by Oikos. It comprises a diverse community of practitioners and scientists dedicated to protecting, managing and restoring forest sites that exhibit substantial biological diversity, fully functioning ecosystems and mature forest structures. These sites span a wide range of countries, from Portugal to Jordan, encompassing various bioclimatic types such as high mountain conifer forests, mountain mixed deciduous forests, lowland dry evergreen forests and freshwater forests. Its mission is aligned with the scope of Silva Mediterranea, and the collaborative effort between Medforval and Silva Mediterranea exemplifies the power of partnerships in advancing conservation goals.  

On 8th June 2024 in Fontecchio, Italy, at the annual Medforval meeting, and in the framework of the final event of the ASMed project From the Apennines to the Shouf: migrations of experiences and knowledge across the Mediterranean, the Silva Mediterranea Secretariat and the Forest and Landscape Restoration Mechanism (FLRM) of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) were invited to present successful restoration practices in the Mediterranean region. They also showcased the tools available for knowledge sharing and capacity development in the framework of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (UN Decade). The Silva Mediterranea Secretariat highlighted restoration projects implemented across the Mediterranean region:  

• Morocco, with the activities developed by the FLRM through the project The Paris Agreement in action: upscaling forest and landscape restoration to achieve nationally determined contributions funded by BMU/IKI in the Maamora forests.
• Tunisia, with activities on adaptive management and restoration of the Aleppo pine forest in the governorate of Kasserine.
• Lebanon, with an example on rangeland management. 
  

Participants were also introduced to the Restoring Mediterranean Forests, a Word Restoration Flagship of the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration. This ambitious recognition prises the efforts made in the Mediterranean to revitalize and restore the region’s forest ecosystems, promoting inspiration and collaboration for further contributions to this important cause. 

OneForest Horizon project concludes with final conference: Silva Mediterranea's key participation and future initiatives 

During the final conference of the Horizon project ONEforest, held in Valladolid, Spain, from 18 to 19 April 2024 and organised by Cesefor, several forestry networks, such as the European Forest Institute (EFI), the European Region for Innovation in Agriculture, Food and Forestry (ERIAFF), the Mediterranean Model Forest Network, Innovawood, the Bioregions Facility and Silva Mediterranea, participated to share insights into their action plans, highlighting their role in fostering forest innovation and stakeholder synergies. The forum acted as an opportunity for collaboration and knowledge exchange, designed for the academic forestry community, forestry professionals, technology experts, researchers, private forest owners, public managers, entrepreneurs and Non-Governmental Organizations across the European Union. 

The conference was an opportunity to present the main Horizon projects dedicated to innovation and the main networks of players in the forest sector, with different roles in European forestry cooperation. It shed light on the financial prospects within the forestry sector and took on political importance as a sector to be sent to the European Commission. The Silva Mediterranea Secretariat presented its network, which extends beyond the European Union, focusing on the whole Mediterranean region and working for collaborative partnerships among countries. The Silva Mediterranea Secretariat showcased its most recent activities as the UN Decade flagship “Restoring Mediterranean Forests,” the special issue of Unasylva “Restoring the Mediterranean region: status and challenges”, the third edition of the State of Mediterranean Forests and also announced the Eight Mediterranean Forest Week in Barcelona, 4-8 November 2024. 

Advanced course on management strategies to improve the resilience of Mediterranean forests  

Held in Zaragoza, Spain, from 15 to 20 April 2024, this course was organized by the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM), through the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Zaragoza (CIHEAM Zaragoza), with the Ecological and Forestry Applications Research Centre (CREAF) and the Mediterranean Facility of the European Forest Institute (EFIMED), and featured participation of the Silva Mediterranea Secretariat. The weeklong programme gathered more than 20 participants in person and 10 online, joining from different Mediterranean countries, from young to seasoned professionals, working in a wide range of institutions and organizations on different aspects of Mediterranean forestry. The programme consisted of sessions with renown lecturers from the organizing institutions and other partners, such as National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment (INRAE), Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia (CTFC) and the region’s universities. 

The course offered an overview of the threats, opportunities and challenges for Mediterranean forests and their resilience in a context of global change. It also focused on a thorough understanding on how to apply an operational framework to assess the resilience of Mediterranean forests. It offered perspectives of management practices to cope with the disturbances threatening forests and provided knowledge of strategies and tools for the integration of forest management practices to address them. It provided insights into integrated forest management and governance. All this, exemplified through a filed visit to the Poblet Forest, which symbolizes a perfect Mediterranean laboratory, as it contains all the conditions of Mediterranean forestry in one single place.  

The Tartu Declaration: A call for urgent action on Nature Restoration in Europe 

SERE 2024 is an international conference organised by the European Chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration (SERE) and takes place in Europe every two years. The 14th congress was held in Tartu, Estonia, on 26-20 August 2024, titled Bridging science, practice, and policy of Nature Restoration. The Silva Mediterranea Secretariat and the FLRM participated in two sessions: 

• UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and opportunities to support Europe’s restoration ambition 
• Advancing the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration: collaboration, best practices and flagships 

The objective of the sessions was to illustrate the role of the UN Decade in the development of the EU Restoration Law (NRL), recently approved by the European Union, and to showcase restoration activities undertaken under the framework of the UN Decade to promote inspiration and collaborations. The Tartu Declaration, endorsed by 674 participants from 47 countries, outlined recommendations for effectively implementing the NRL, emphasizing the urgent need for immediate restoration actions to address the climate and biodiversity crises, even before national restoration plans are finalized. The declaration underscored the importance of information sharing and stakeholder engagement, to base the national restoration plans and their implementation on scientific evidence and best-practice approaches. The declaration concluded by advocating for the establishment of national knowledge network hubs to facilitate collaboration and knowledge exchange between scientists, site managers and policymakers throughout the implementation process. It further called for long-term monitoring, reporting and law enforcement.  

Giovanbattista de Dato, Andrea Romero, Lucia Rivera and Satia Ras