Mediterranean workshop promotes collaborative sustainable development

Sustainable use of Mediterranean countries' natural resources through the promotion of long-term collaboration among them is being proposed by the Medcoastland Thematic Network, which is preparing a draft agreement.

Optimising the use of natural resources to obtain sustainable development should be the strategic priority for the Mediterranean region, the network believes.

The stakes for the existence of the Mediterranean people have been continuously the same: scarcity of water and land resources; and a situation exacerbated by population growth and tourism.

Funded by the European Commission, the network aims to combat land degradation, with 13 Euro-Mediterranean countries on board, including Malta.

A series of workshops have been co-ordinated by the International Centre for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM), through the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Bari, Italy, with the fifth and final workshop opening in Malta yesterday.

The workshop, at the New Dolmen Hotel, Qawra, deals with the drafting of an agreement for assuring continued collaboration in the region on issues related to sustainable natural resource management, with particular attention to land and coastal zones.

The agreement will summarise the findings, conclusions and recommendations derived during the whole duration of the project, which started in 2002.

It will have to prepare the fundamentals for the drafting of the Memoranda of Understanding that will be signed at the end of the project.

Some of the project's findings show that the fight against land degradation and desertification could be successful if income-generating activities are used to enhance the interest of the local people for conserving their land, and the right balance in decision-making is found.

Some of the topics of the agreement include the creation of a regional database to assess and monitor the status of land degradation as an early warning system to reveal degradation and desertification trends.

It also involves the identification of needs and topics to be targeted for future research and the possible further involvement of the EU in the region.

Rural Affairs Minister George Pullicino, who took part of yesterday's session, said the region faced numerous challenges from flash floods, overgrazing and desertification to salinisation and forest fires, among others, that were leading to soil degradation across Europe.

"The need to collect new soil data and harmonise national soil protection legislation with the European regulatory framework is of essence," he said.

"Malta has already taken certain important preparatory steps, from establishing a digital soil information system to the implementation of good farming practices and soil conservation agri-environmental measures as part of the Rural Development Plan," Mr Pullicino added.

He also mentioned his ministry's afforestation project and the ambitious plan to plant 30,000 trees a year. He praised the Medcoastland network for its relentless efforts to secure financial support for this project, to build the foundations of the network and to overcome any project shortcomings.

He augured success in achieving the meeting's aims and consolidating the existing collaboration in the partnership.