The 5th Mediterranean Forest week took place in Agadir (Morocco), from March 20-24th, 2017. This forum, held every two years, is a major event featuring Mediterranean forests that brought the focus on the restoration of Mediterranean forests and landscapes. It gathered forest administrations, scientific and academic community, private sector, funders, civil society and NGOs and allowed them to discuss selected themes.

For the first time, biodiversity considerations were in the focus of forest management, as part of a week focusing mainly on Forest Landscape Restoration.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature - Centre of Mediterranean Cooperation (IUCN-Med) was also participating to this event and contributed through the organization of one side-event, one capacity building session, some mainstream conferences and by sponsoring 7 participants from non EU Mediterranean countries (Algeria, Lebanon, Morocco, Turkey and Tunisia), who attended this event.

With the two side-events, IUCN-Med promoted the Index of Biodiversity Potential (IBP) in Mediterranean forests in collaboration with l'Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) and le Centre National de la Propriété Forestière (CNPF) in France. It identified opportunities for restoration, by focusing on methods and cases that can enhance biodiversity outcomes as well as improve human well-being in degraded landscapes.

In collaboration with the IUCN Global Forest and Climate Change Programme and the secretariat of Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD), the training session focused on the application of Restoration Opportunities Assessment Methodology (ROAM), developed by IUCN.

The objectives of the Mediterranean forest week were to strengthen exchanges and collaborative work between the stakeholders, help achieve SDG 15, contribute to Aichi target 15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), support Bonn Challenge targets, facilitate mitigation and adaptation of Mediterranean landscapes to climate change and help reach the land degradation neutrality goals set by the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) by promoting forest restoration.

For more information: Marcos Valderrábano

Photo: Opening Ceremony with Marcos Valderrábano, Mediterranean Ecosystems Programme Officer at IUCN-Med © Pilar Valbuena for the Forest Communicators Network for the Mediterranean and Near East.