The EFI Scientific Seminar, Forests: Interconnecting Sustainable Development Goals to Action included a Mediterranean-focussed session ‘Mediterranean Forestry for sustainable development: Innovating with nature’.
After a welcome by Giuseppe Scarascia-Mugnozza of the University of Tuscia, Grammenos Mastrojeni from Italian Aid – Cooperazione allo Sviluppo, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, described the policy-maker perspective on the geo-strategic value of vegetation cover, looking at the degradation-insecurity-migration nexus. We need to make nature a source of predictable income through ecosystem and land-based approaches, he said.
Ricardo Valentini from the Univeristy of Tuscia focused on the role of forests in addressing climate change in the Mediterranean. Mediterranean forests have a large mitigation potential due to soil accumulation and biomass growth.
This was followed by an interesting panel discussion (Magda Bou Dagher Kharrat, Francisco Carvalho, Sara Lucia Maltoni, Fabio Salbitano, moderated by Head of EFIMED, Inazio Martinez de Arano) which explored how to create value from Mediterranean forests for rural and urban communities.
Finally, Donatella Spano from Regione Sardegna summed up the seminar with her concluding remarks.
View the full programme and presentations.
The EFI 2018 Annual Conference took place in Alghero, Sardinia on 26-28 September 2018 and it was organised together with the EFI’s Project Centre on Mountain Forests (MOUNTFOR), the University of Molise and the University of Tuscia, with support from the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, Italy.
