Results of the network on December 1st, 2016 :
After the eighteen months, the network is rich of 19 sites spread over the entire Mediterranean basin and grouped into four ecological clusters.
A launching workshop was held in Martigues (France) in July 2015, on the one hand enabling the members of the network to meet and on the other to define a common strategy and action plans. The first tools for partners (particularly the website and the e-forum) were also defined before being implemented.
The members then met in Prespa (Greece) in July 2016, at an annual meeting consisting of two training sessions, a visit to one of the network's sites, and exchange sessions on the network past, ongoing and future actions.
A first call for small projects was launched at the end of 2015, and four grants were awarded, with a view to implementing concrete actions on the ground.
Find these four projects by following this link: Call for small projects
Network members also began working together to develop joint project proposals on multiple sites in order to sustain the network's actions, with two financial support granted, the first in the South and East (Morocco, Turkey, Lebanon) around a project to conserve biodiversity, and the second on the north shore (Portugal, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece) aimed at the adaptation of high-value sylvo-agro-pastoral systems in the Mediterranean.
Finally, the members met to exchange within their sites thanks to learning visits. The partners of Ermenek-Konya (Turkey) visited the site of the Sierra de las Nieves (Spain) and at least three other exchange projects are being prepared, in the sites of Shouf (Lebanon), Guadiana (Portugal) and La Massane (France).
In addition to these activities, the network and project were presented at an international level, with posters selected at the XIV World Forestry Congress (Durban, South Africa, September 2015) and the EcoPlantMED Conference (Beirut, Lebanon, October 2015), and a presentation at the 6th Steering Committee of the CPMF (Rabat, Morocco, November 2015) and the workshop of the Natura 2000 Mediterranean biogeographic process (Lumières, France, May 2016).
Moreover, an external mid-term evaluation is currently underway with the objectives of establishing an overall assessment of the project since its inception and, on the other hand, studying issues related to technical, human and financial sustainability of the network created, proposing food for thought and possible recommendations for the future.