A resilient future for Mediterranean landscapes - White paper on policy recommendations for landscape resilience in the Mediterranean region

The Mediterranean Basin is considered a Climate change hotspot. Climate change impacts, however, are diverse and have interacting, cumulative, and cascading effects, posing significant risks to biodiversity, food security, societal well-being, and cultural heritage. Additionally, migration fluxes and geopolitical instabilities increase both exposure and vulnerability of Mediterranean socio-ecological systems. Still, solutions exist, and there is a growing consensus among practitioners, experts, and academia that building socio-ecologically resilient landscapes is a pressing need across the region. However, the practical implementation of solutions remains limited to date and faces numerous barriers today.

This white paper proposes 40 policy recommendations that would support the implementation of good practices to increase the socio-ecological resilience of Mediterranean landscapes. They are grouped into four challenges:

• One Mediterranean Basin, diverse landscapes: integrate the resilient landscapes framework across all  sectoral policy domains

• Promote sustainable management of cultural landscapes and the implementation of nature-based solutions

• Sharing, scaling up, and replicability: blending traditional knowledge and innovation for future resilience

• Policies and public-social-private partnerships for resilience financing