The recent ResAlliance policy forums have provided valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities for enhancing landscape resilience across the Mediterranean basin. Two separate forums – one focused on forestry and the other on agriculture – brought together a diverse group of policymakers, public authorities, academics, and practitioners to explore barriers and identify innovative solutions. CIFOR-ICRAF, EFI, and CTFC.
Diverse participation and representation
In the forestry forum, held during the 8th Mediterranean Forest Week in Barcelona, 28 participants – with a balanced gender split – contributed to the discussion. Despite a highly targeted invitation process, the event highlighted challenges in reaching a broader audience. Similarly, the online agriculture forum attracted 62 participants, with a notably diverse professional mix including policymakers, public authorities, academia, technicians, and farmers, alongside participants from key Mediterranean countries such as Cyprus, Italy, Greece, and Spain.
Main findings from the mentimeter survey
Both forums employed Mentimeter to capture immediate feedback on the main barriers, bottlenecks, and knowledge gaps in four thematic areas: management practices, technology, finance, and governance.
- Forestry context:
- Management practices: Participants pointed to significant knowledge gaps, resistance to change, and limited cross-sectoral thinking. Community engagement and administrative delays were also flagged as key challenges.
- Technology: The survey revealed obstacles such as limited rural connectivity, usability issues with current tools, and a critical need for capacity building.
- Governance: A common theme was the disconnect between centralized decision-making and the local needs of rural communities, compounded by fragmented, short-term policies.
- Finance: Insufficient funding, short-term financial planning, and bureaucratic hurdles hindered the effective support of sustainable land management.
- Management practices: Participants pointed to significant knowledge gaps, resistance to change, and limited cross-sectoral thinking. Community engagement and administrative delays were also flagged as key challenges.
- Agriculture context:
- Management practices: Complex and contradictory policies, restrictive legislation, and excessive bureaucracy emerged as major concerns. Limited financial support and coordination gaps further compounded these issues.
- Governance: The survey underscored the challenges posed by limited involvement of local actors, rural depopulation, and fragmented legal frameworks.
- Technology: High investment costs, inadequate rural connectivity, and a lack of tailored technological solutions were cited as key impediments.
- Finance: Participants highlighted the dominance of public funding, complex access procedures, and inequitable distribution of financial support as primary obstacles.
- Management practices: Complex and contradictory policies, restrictive legislation, and excessive bureaucracy emerged as major concerns. Limited financial support and coordination gaps further compounded these issues.
Outcomes of the open discussions
The forums extended beyond the surveys, engaging participants in open discussions that brought additional depth to the findings:
- Forestry open discussion:
- Carbon credits & funding: Carbon credits emerged as a promising funding mechanism, with initial support from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and potential for long-term benefits.
- Agroforestry and rural development: The need for targeted advisory support, enhanced training, and robust monitoring systems was emphasized to boost agroforestry practices and counteract rural abandonment.
- Effective communication: Participants stressed the importance of clear, proactive communication strategies to bridge the gap between science, policy, and public understanding.
- Carbon credits & funding: Carbon credits emerged as a promising funding mechanism, with initial support from the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and potential for long-term benefits.
- Agriculture open discussion:
- Policy & governance: The dialogue highlighted critical policy implementation gaps and conflicts over land use, calling for better-integrated and enforceable policies.
- Social and demographic challenges: Rural depopulation and the aging farmer population were recognized as major hurdles, necessitating investments in local infrastructure and the promotion of innovative public-private partnerships.
- Financial and market barriers: There was a consensus on the need for adaptive financing models that support small-scale projects and encourage the use of carbon finance and ecosystem service payments.
- Policy & governance: The dialogue highlighted critical policy implementation gaps and conflicts over land use, calling for better-integrated and enforceable policies.
Moving forward
The insights from these forums are set to inform the upcoming ResAlliance White Paper on Policy Recommendations and the Landscape Resilience Blueprint. As the project moves towards its final phase, the dialogue between policymakers and stakeholders will continue, aiming to translate these findings into actionable, cross-sectoral strategies for sustainable land management in the Mediterranean region.
For more detailed information on the forums and the emerging policy recommendations, please visit ResAlliance.