Catalysing restoration efforts in the Mediterranean region through the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021–2030

Funding

Currently, two projects are being im plemented by MedForVal partners and Istituto Oikos explicitly addressing the transboundary dissemination of good practices. The first project, “From the Apennines to the Shouf – AsMED”, funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation, aims to foster exchanges between Italy (Aterno Valley) and Lebanon (Shouf Biosphere Reserve) on good practices for landscape restoration and management, addressing forest, agricultural and water management. The project activities include training courses, field visits, remote technical assistance and workshops, with the expected outcome of promoting knowledge sharing to encourage the use of participatory management tools and mechanisms based on proven models. The second project, “MediterRE3”, funded by the German Cooperation (EUKI), was implemented in the Luberon-Lure Biosphere Reserve, France, Prokletije National Park, Montenegro, and Samarià National Park, Greece. It aims to promote fire-smart resilient landscapes through mosaic landscape restoration in the region. Its results and selected good practices were summarized in a document published in 2023. Before the declaration of the Decade, several initiatives were already ongoing to foster FLR in the Mediterranean region and to contribute to the implementation of the Agadir Commitment. For example, the “Paris Agreement in Action” project funded by the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action supported several countries, including Lebanon and Morocco representing the Mediterranean region, to upscale FLR initiatives as a strategy for achieving their NDCs. Mediterranean forest landscapes, and the Italy-based secretariat of Istituto Oikos have been working intensively on disseminating good practices for ecosystem restoration in the region. In 2021, the results of a survey on FLR in the Mediterranean were published as part of the project “Mediterranean Knowledge on Forest Landscape Restoration” funded by the MAVA Foundation. The document included eight case studies from five countries (Greece, Italy, Morocco, Spain and Türkiye) collected through a questionnaire circulated among Mediterranean networks and mailing lists. Featured good practices include a wide range of restoration targets, including mosaic landscapes in Spain, ecological corridors in Italy, silvopastoral ecosystems in Morocco, river watersheds in Türki-ye and priority Natura 2000 habitats in Greece.