Medforval Annual Meeting Showcases
StrategyMedFor Project’s Progress
Advancing Sustainable Forest Management in the Mediterranean Region
The 2024 Medforval Annual Meeting, held from June 5-7 in Fontecchio, Italy, was a resounding success. The event brought together 25 practitioners from national parks and natural reserves across nine Mediterranean countries, fostering a vibrant space for knowledge exchange and collaboration.
A key highlight of the meeting was the presentation of the StrategyMedFor project. Istituto OIKOS and CIHEAM-MAICh delivered a presentation that provided an overview of the project’s goals and achievements to date.
The presentation covered the project’s initial phase, which establishes a preliminary conceptual framework. This framework includes a critical set of criteria and indicators designed to improve management practices for Mediterranean forests. Moreover, the presentation also detailed project activities that engage the Medforval network, such as applying the developed indicators to the Medforval member sites to highlight impacts, fragmentation, connectivity, and local climate scenarios.
“StrategyMedFor will define a set of guidelines, criteria, and indicators (C&I) tailored to the wider Mediterranean region with a focus on biodiversity loss and climate change,” stated Dany Ghosn from CIHEAM-MAICh. “This process will be conducted in close collaboration with key stakeholders like Medforval, ensuring the C&I are relevant and impactful at the Mediterranean scale.”
By fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange with key stakeholders, StrategyMedFor is building momentum towards its objective of developing a sustainable management strategy for Mediterranean forests. This strategy will be tailored to address the specific needs of various forest types and will account for foreseeable climate scenarios.
Medforval is proud to support this crucial initiative and looks forward to monitoring StrategyMedFor’s progress and contributing to its success.
About StrategyMedFor
StrategyMedFor is an ambitious initiative involving seven partners from six countries within the Interreg Cooperation area, including two IPA countries, as well as associated institutions from the EU and international forest management communities. The project’s primary goal is to develop a comprehensive Strategy for Sustainable Management of Mediterranean Forests (SSMMF). By utilizing geospatial data, remote sensing, GIS and climate modelling, the strategy will deliver scientifically grounded recommendations on which forests should be protected, restored, or managed for resilience.
Within the project, Istituto Oikos leads Work package 4 (WP4), which focuses on the Result Amplification Strategy. This involves disseminating and amplifying the project’s outcomes through the Medforval network across the broader Mediterranean context. Moreover, findings from the SSMMF will be incorporated into an updated 10-year Medforval strategy for 2025-2035.
Running from January 2024 to September 2026, the project also includes CIHEAM-MAICh as project partner and the Society for the Protection of Prespa (SPP) as an associated partner, both of whom are integral to the Medforval network.
Stay tuned for further updates on StrategyMedFor’s progress as the project unfolds!
