Twenty years ago, in Grado, Italy a catalytic event was organised that revitalised interest among the scientific community for Mediterranean wetlands, creating great impetus that led to developments such as the establishment of the Mediterranean Wetlands Initiative (MedWet). In Agadir, Morocco a new International Symposium will be held on 6-8 February 2012 that will review and evaluate the progress made these last twenty years in regards to water and wetlands in the Mediterranean Basin, will highlight problems and risks wetlands face and make plans for the next twenty years. The Symposium aims to bring together and promote closer collaboration among wetland stakeholders so as to identify changes and their effects on Mediterranean wetlands and propose solutions for increased sustainability of water resources.

The Symposium is being organised under the aegis of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, which is one of the main partners, along with he Haut Commissariat aux Eaux et Forêts et à la Lutte contre la Désertification (Morocco), the MedWet Initiative, Tour du Valat and many others. The event is funded by the MAVA Foundation for Nature, the Italian Ministry of Environment and the MedWet Initiative. Med-INA director Thymio Papayannis chairs the International Organising Committee.

Med-INA is participating in the Symposium in thematic session four (Values of wetland cultural services) and in the poster competition presenting the MAVA-funded project ‘Culture and wetlands in the Mediterranean: Using cultural heritage aspects for wetland restoration actions’ that is ongoing.

For more information about the Agadir Symposium please click here.

The workshop was a major activity of the Med-INA project on ‘Implementation of the European Landscape Convention in Greece’, through which it actively assists the Greek Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change in the harmonisation with the convention’s requirements. Amongst the various actions undertaken by the organisation is the development of a tool that will allow landscape characterisation at a local scale. This tool will be used mainly by planners and will be incorporated in planning methodologies.

Research so far has revealed that various methodologies exist, all with a different starting point but with a similar scope: to understand the character of the landscape and to make decisions on its best management and future development. However, most of these methods are mainly designed for non-Mediterranean contexts and do not necessarily address the issue in a holistic manner.

The workshop on landscape characterisation methods aimed to examine:
•    how applicable existing methods can be for understanding the character of landscape in the Mediterranean and in Greece in particular, and
•    whether it is possible to adapt existing methods / tools to use for these particular geographical contexts.

During the workshop, with the participation of international experts, the main landscape characterisation methodologies were presented, demonstrating also examples of good practice, as well as problems that arose in their application. These methodologies were examined comparatively and proposals for their further development and / or relevance to the Mediterranean and Greek contexts were made.

You can download here the Agenda of the workshop.

You can download here the Background document of the workshop.

You can download here the Participants’ list.

Source: http://www.ramsar.org/cda/en/ramsar-news-announcing-2012-ramsar-awards/main/ramsar/1-26%5E25440_4000_0__

Culture and wetlands in the Mediterranean: an evolving story

The book is the result of a four-year research project (2007-2011), which concerned mainly the implementation in the Mediterranean Region of the Ramsar Guidance on Culture and Wetlands. It was carried out by Med-INA, the Mediterranean Institute on Nature and Anthropos, with the financial support of the MAVA Foundation.

This multi-author book follows a structure that echoes the Ramsar Guidance and investigates the benefits that can result from following its objectives, analysing various sectors of human activities and more than 20 wetland sites. In addition, it identifies areas in which the guidance provided needs to be strengthened or others that are not yet covered. Most of the 32 authors are wetland experts from many disciplines who have been sensitised to the integrated approach to heritage, both natural and cultural, and have been willing to introduce this new concept of culture in their wetland work. Each chapter and section of the book is introduced by the two editors, Thymio Papayannis, director of Med-INA and coordinator of the Ramsar Culture Working Group and Dave Pritchard, recipient of the Ramsar Award in 2008.

Papayannis, T. and Pritchard, D. (eds) 2011, Culture and Wetlands in the Mediterranean: an Evolving Story, Athens: Med-INA (hard cover and soft cover, 438 pages).

Available gratis from: afoutri@med-ina.org or fax: +30 210 3629338, providing full postal address (upon postage payment)

Link to book, in PDF format (7MB)

The Society for the Protection of Nature in Lebanon (SPNL), the United Nations University – Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH), the West Asia – North Africa (WANA) Forum and the World Justice Project (WJP), in collaboration with the Research Center for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA) recently organised a three day regional workshop on Hima governance that was held at IRCICA in Istanbul, Turkey. Hima, which literally means ‘protected area’ in Arabic, is a community-based environmental resource management system that promotes sustainability, conservation, environmental protection and social justice.

The participants of the workshop were 32 representatives from different countries across the WANA region, NGOs, government agencies, universities and local communities. They examined traditional and contemporary approaches in community-based resource management, such as Himas, and protected area management, such as Nature Reserves, practices and methods of economic, social, environmental and cultural knowledge   and legal mechanisms and discussed the potential of future cooperation. In the current context of transition in the region, the workshop highlighted the importance of Hima as a concept that emerges from within WANA in contrast to the imported models, and emphasized on strengthening the local stakeholders, recognizing the natural and cultural resources and providing sound political and legal frameworks, in addition to economic viability and resilience to crises.

The workshop recognised the need for devising a strategic policy, based on discussions from the workshop and synthesis of the case study abstracts, to revive the Hima approach to meet present-day challenges. By integrating traditional knowledge and wisdom with scientific innovation, the objective of this regional collaboration is to establish a community-based environmental resource management system that is applicable not only to the WANA region but for the rest of the world as well. Based on a set of principles and indicators within a legal framework and grounded in the region’s rich heritage of Islamic ecological ethics, pilot studies were proposed for verifying and modifying the Hima management system.

The policy brief on Hima governance, the first of its kind, will serve as a tool that can be adapted to meet the needs of local communities, while the proposed knowledge management system will be the region’s hub for sharing case studies, interactive maps and proposed regional projects. Journalists attending the workshop suggested the production of a documentary on Hima to capture men and women’s oral history, indigenous knowledge acquired and maintained for over 1500 years.

HRH Prince El Hassan bin Talal, Chairman of the WANA Forum, said that he hopes the outcome of the workshop will serve the larger aim of cultivating and developing WANA’s cultural traditions and values, including its ‘knowledge heritage’, in order to respond more effectively to the socio-economic needs of people in the region, irrespective of labels and groupings. “The challenges facing the region are transnational,” he added.

Island societies have often developed peculiar cultures –and corresponding lifestyles– adapted to geographic isolation as well as space and resources limitations. However, most of these insular societies have been transformed by the global process of cultural homogenisation. The first international workshop on islands sustainability, organised by the Charles Darwin Foundation (CDF) in March 2010, focused on the threats to ecological and social sustainability caused by the contemporary process of wide geographical opening of insular regions.

The CDF organised the second international workshop on cultural identities and sustainable lifestyles, September 28-30 in Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz. CDF invited experts and leaders on island culture, environment and development issues. The overall goal of the workshop, which was sponsored by UNESCO, was for the Galapagos people to learn, compare and analyse various island systems around the world in order to develop a model that could contribute to a sustainable development in Galapagos while preserving cultural values and natural resources. In other words, this second workshop focussed on the ways to establish an island culture and lifestyle that recognise limits to economic growth and expansion in a fragile environment. The Mediterranean Institute for Nature and Anthropos (Med-INA) was represented in the workshop by its member, Stefanos Dodouras, who presented the main lines and outcomes of Med-INA’s programme “Conservation and Management of Greek Landscapes”.

Participants of the workshop were: -

• Dr. J. Gabriel Lopez, CDF Executive Director, and Mr. Felipe Cruz, CDF Director of Technical Assistance, who referred to the series of workshops that have been and will be organised in order to develop participatory approaches and try to measure human footprint on Galapagos’ natural environment.
• Dr. Christophe Grenier, Head of CDF Social Sciences, who referred to the geographical part of culture, i.e. the co-existence of different cultures and diverse lifestyles on Galapagos Islands.
• Mr. Fabian Zapata, President of the Galapagos Governing Council, who highlighted the need for community involvement and integrated approaches.
• Mr. Mathias Espinosa, a Galapagos National Park (GNP) naturalist guide from Isabela Island, noted the non-existent land-use planning and economic (development) policies as well as the importance of environmental education.
• Mr. Max Freire, President of the Floreana Island Parish Council, who stated that future actions should be based on consensus building and pose the question of what the future political and economic actions should be.
• Mr. Whitman Cox, a GNP naturalist guide from San Cristobal Island, referred to the tourist industry as a tool both powerful and dangerous.
• Mr Ermanno Zecchetini, originally from Italy but a long-time Isabela resident, stated that other countries may have rich history and unique cultures but the Galapagos case is a different story since it is not about the museums, the cathedrals or the archaeology but rather it is about the last laboratory of nature.
• From Fiji, Mr. Etika Rupeni, coordinator of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Pacific Islands Roundtable for Nature Conservation, outlined the future challenges for insular regions and the need to strengthen “traditional” and local governance.
• Dr. Sandy Kerr, from Scotland’s Orkney Islands, focussed on the fact that islands are open systems where nothing –culture or environment– is fixed whereas traditions and cultures must mean something today if they are to survive.
• From Chile, Dr. Francisca Massardo of the Omora Ethno-Botanic Park in the highly-threatened Cape Horn Archipelago, outlined some of the main threats to insular environments such as aquaculture, tourism and introduction of exotic species and proclaimed that the implementation of genuine alternative development options must respect the local habitats and inhabitants.
• Dr. Stefanos Dodouras of the Mediterranean Institute for Nature and Anthropos (Med-INA) related experiences from the Greek island of Lemnos and the weak feeling and appreciation of insular natural and cultural values.
• Dr. Aroha Te Pareake Mead, Dean at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand and IUCN Commissioner and Dr. Kapua Sproat, law professor at the University of Hawaii, both descendants of ancient indigenous cultures stated that nature and people evolve together. Both panellists referred to the fact that joint visions that are needed in order to appreciate insular (natural and cultural) heritage but such a process takes time, trial and error.

CDF is committed to furthering understanding among the inhabitants of Galapagos and to strengthening conservation awareness in support of sustainable local development. In its formal agreement with the Government of Ecuador, CDF is charged with the responsibility of providing technical and scientific advice for decision-making and of helping to improve institutional and individual capabilities for Galapagos conservation and management. As such, CDF is planning to organised similar events in the future that will take up themes such as tourism, marine and waste management, urban planning, energy and transport, climate change and food security

The initiative is supervised by the Mediterranean Wetlands Committee, an inter-regional organ of the Ramsar Convention, which ensures its legitimacy and guidance, and is developed in close collaboration with MedWet.

Med-INA, the Mediterranean Institute for Nature and Anthropos based in Athens, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Tour du Valat to assist in the incorporation of cultural aspects in the work of the Observatory.

Several working meetings have been organised during the last three years and Med-INA has participated in most of them. The last one was organised in Ede-Wageningen in the Netherlands, in 15-16 September 2010. Med-INA, represented by Social anthropologist Irini Lyratzaki, presented a proposal for the development of cultural indicators. It was decided that a cultural indicator (probably one estimating wetland visitor numbers) will be included in the indicators priority list.

The seminar, titled “Landscape and Development Cooperation” was held in Sala d’ Arles (Can Batllo Assembly Hall), Barcelona on Friday 18th, June 2010. Special attention was paid to the possibilities the landscape can offer with regard to improving the living conditions of contemporary societies.

For mare information please visit:

http://www.catpaisatge.net/eng/jornades_cooperacio.php

The Landscape Observatory of Catalonia in collaboration with the European Network of Local and Regional Authorities for the Implementation of the European Convention (RECEP) is organising an international seminar titled “Fringes: The Landscape of the Periphery”.  The seminar will be held on Wednesday 10^th and Thursday 11^th, November 2010 in Casal Maria, Olot, Spain. Its main aim is to propose new landscape management and interaction methods.

For mare information please visit: http://catpaisatge.net/franges2010/eng

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Για να καλλιεργηθεί το επικλινές έδαφος σε πολλά από τα νησιά του Αιγαίου, η κατασκευή αναβαθμίδων κρίθηκε απαραίτητη ήδη από τους αρχαίους χρόνους. Η εγκατάλειψη των παραδοσιακών γεωργικών πρακτικών έχει οδηγήσει στη προσπάθεια συντήρησης των πεζουλιών και τη διατήρηση των  ξηρών-πέτρινων τοιχωμάτων τους (ξερολιθιές). Το αποτέλεσμα είναι μια αργή διάβρωση, η οποία διατηρεί ακόμα κάποια χαρακτηριστικά στοιχεία του τοπίου. Αυτό εξαφανίζεται πια καθώς η περιοχή πωλείται για χτίσιμο εξοχικών κατοικιών και αυτές οι κατασκευές αλλοιώνουν τελείως ακόμη και τα τελευταία ίχνη των χαρακτηριστικών αυτών αναβαθμίδων.

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Η Μήλος, ακόμα ένα νησί των Κυκλάδων, είναι γνωστό λόγω της πλούσιας γεωλογίας του που προκύπτει από την αρχαία ηφαιστειογενή δράση. Ως αποτέλεσμα σήμερα εξάγονται διάφορα μεταλλεύματα. Στο κέντρο του νησιού, οι δραστηριότητες εξαγωγής μεταλλευμάτων έχουν δημιουργήσει ένα νέο τοπιακό στοιχείο, ένα μεγάλο τεχνητό κρατήρα, με έναν μικρό υγρότοπο στο κέντρο του. Προσπάθειες έχουν διενεργηθεί από την εταιρία εξαγωγής ώστε να αποκαταστήσουν τη βλάστηση γύρω από τον κρατήρα με τα ανάμεικτα αποτελέσματα. Οι δραστηριότητες εξαγωγής ορυκτών (ειδικά μάρμαρου και βωξίτη) έχουν επιπτώσεις σε πολλά ελληνικά τοπία και τα μέτρα αποκατάστασης είναι συχνά ανύπαρκτα, αδύνατα ή ανεπιτυχή, με πολύ λίγα θετικά παραδείγματα (με τη Μήλο να είναι ένα από αυτά).

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