Blue Plan activities

Plan Bleu has been assigned to follow up the Mediterranean Strategy for Sustainable Development (MSSD) and to conduct in 2006-2007 and 2007-2008 in-depth analyses of the priority field untitled “the sustainable agricultural and rural development”. For so doing, Plan Bleu has mobilized its regional partners and has elaborated a programme of activities: more information...

The new Plan Bleu 2005 Report “ A sustainable future for the Mediterranean – The Blue Plan’s environment and development outlook” analyses six priority fields among which the “rural areas”.

See also the Plan Bleu publications on the following themes: agriculture , forests , soils and Mountains . The forest issue is part of the programme Silva Mediterreanea: more information...

Observation: overexploited land in the South, management
deficits in the North

Mediterranean rural areas are characterized by the contrast between a few fertile plains and vast, arid mountain ranges, by the significant socio-economic and environmental vulnerability and the growing
disparity in agricultural productivity and income between both shores.
• In the North, the agricultural population fell by 74% in 40 years, leading to the abandonment of numerous mountain areas. The rural renewal driven by new quality products, by the agro-food industry, by tourism and by the residential economy, has prevented neither the significant degradation of rural areas nor the decline of the Mediterranean food regime. Urban sprawl and the abandonment and non-management of mountainous areas result in an irreversible degradation of Mediterranean landscapes, a loss of productive capital and biodiversity and an increased vulnerability to flooding and fire.
• In the South and East, despite emigration, agricultural populations grew from 61 to 71 million between 1960 and 2000. Agriculture still plays a decisive social and economic role, but rural poverty also affects several countries of the eastern Adriatic such as Albania. Considerable pressure is put on natural resources leading
to deforestation, desertification, silting up of dams, disruptions of run-off water and the irreversible loss of biodiversity. In Turkey salinization has deprived agriculture of 1.5 million of land; in Tunisia, it is estimated that 37 000 ha of land are lost each year.

THE MAIN FIGURE
80 %
In the South and
East, 80 % of the arid or dry areas affected by desertification.

THE GRAPH
Total agricultural populations in the Mediterranean countries: retrospective and scenario to 2025

NB: the figures presented herein cover all Mediterranean countries with the exception of the non-Mediterranean part of France. This may explain the considerable differences with figures from other sources.

The foreseeable future: risks of ecological and social rupture

The baseline scenario assumptions cover an increase in the number of droughts, a reciprocal and gradual trade liberalization of agricultural products between the two shores, a common agricultural policy
extended to the new EU member countries but not to the other Mediterranean countries, and insufficient rural development policies. In such a scenario the fall in the agricultural population could remain high in the North (a reduction of more than half between now and 2025). The fall could clearly begin in the South and East, while rural population levels remain stable.
The main risks of this scenario are on-going rural poverty in the South and East and accrued irreversible degradation of natural resources: the
depletion of water resources, desertification and the loss of over 1.5 million hectares of quality agricultural land through urbanization and
infrastructures. The risks of ecological and social rupture in some vulnerable areas are real. Rural poverty may continue to limit the development of national economies in several countries. A more
abrupt liberalization of trade could lead to impoverishment of rural-to-urban migration and increased emigration, as in Mexico.

EXAMPLE OF GOOD PRACTICES
Organic agriculture and integrated rural development
are making the Mediterranean dynamic again

Italy is the leader in organic agriculture both in Europe and in the
Mediterranean region with 1.23 million
hectares, i.e. 11.4% of all arable land
and permanent crops. In Egypt, the
Sekem Group, founded in 1977, is
today, 25 years later, a network of
companies, with 2 000 employees,
working in such fields as biodynamic
agriculture, craftsmanship and
pharmaceuticals. Sekem is behind the
founding of the Egyptian Biodynamic
Association that promotes the
development of organic agriculture on
nearly 4 000 hectares throughout the
country and in more than 400 small
and medium-sized farms.
In Turkey, the Koykent project,
launched in July 2000, included 9
villages in the Cavdar region, and put
an end to rural migration to cities
through a global action plan to upgrade
or create basic services and support for
economic activities.
In the Maghreb countries, the initial
projects based on integrated,
regionalized and participatory
approaches have demonstrated that it is possible to reduce poverty and
desertification. Thus in eastern
Morocco, the negotiated management
project based on the social inheritance
of livestock breeders’ customary rights, enabled the restoration of 450 000 ha of degraded pasturelands within seven years.

Alternatives: Sustainable rural development

Sustainable rural development strategies and policies are required to reduce rural poverty, renew countryside areas, develop domestic and international markets, safeguard environmental public property and
maintain social cohesion.
The alternative scenario specifically presupposes the protection of agricultural lands near urban areas and the enhancement of products quality (official certification policies). It also entails the protection of
territories having the capacity to benefit from the growing international and domestic demand for typical and organic products and for rural tourism, stronger service offer, political recognition of the multifunctional roles of agriculture and Mediterranean woodlands and innovative policies for sustainable rural development in the South and East.
Such policies will bring public authorities to shift to a culture of local and participatory governance. The success of this scenario hinges upon the factoring-in of sustainable rural development goals by the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership and support for agricultural and rural development in the South and East, accompanied by decentralised cooperation programs. Another important objective of regional
cooperation is, as already launched by WHO and the Anglo-Saxon countries, to promote the Mediterranean food regime as a way to limit the growing social costs of cardiovascular diseases and certain cancers.