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Mediterranean Basin:
Integrating Nature and Culture

The mountainous basin around the Mediterranean Sea constitutes the largest of the five regions and contains themost native plant species: some 25,000. The basin spans Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, from Portugal to Morocco, and includes such ancient cities as Jerusalem, Istanbul and Alexandria. The region is home to 450 million people and hosts 170 million international tourists each year.

“You cannot speak of wilderness — empty natural places — in this region,” says Paolo Lombardi, director of WWF’s Mediterranean program. “But there is an integration of human use and nature.”

Indeed, many of the region’s rarities evolved with and depend on human activity. People have grazed livestock among the cork oak forests of Spain, Portugal and Morocco for centuries. The resulting open woodlands support cranes, lynx and even wolves.

Other countries are now trying to strike that balance. At a May 2008 conference in Germany, the governments of Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia jointly promised to expand protected areas that can deliver environmental and social benefits to their countries. Their collective mountainous coasts, known as the Dinaric Arc, harbor some of the most pristine and plentiful forests and freshwater habitats in the Mediterranean Basin. WWF, with financial and technical assistance from the Conservancy, led the coalition that persuaded the governments to make their commitment.

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Mediterranean Habitats: Lovely, Rare — and Endangered » 

Nature picture credits: Map © XNR Productions; Photo © Vladimir Tatarevic (Dinaric Arc, Montenegro)