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Background paper: Cities and conservation

in Mediterranean-type regions

 

[Home page of this section]

 

[Note: The original version of this paper was prepared by Ted Trzyna for Med-5: A Workshop to Design an Intercontinental Program on Cities and Conservation in Mediterranean-type Ecosystems, Malibu, California, March 2004. This later version has benefited from comments during and after the workshop. Its purpose is to sketch the outlines of the problem. More definitive background information will be posted on, or linked to, these pages.]

 

     A.  Introduction 

     B.  The five Mediterranean-type ecosystems   

     C.  Shared characteristics and problems 

     Note 1.  MTE regions and countries 

     Note 2.  Major cities in MTEs 

     Note 3.  Sources and references   

 

A.  INTRODUCTION

 

The idea for an intercontinental program on conservation and management of large-scale Mediterranean-type ecosystems (MTEs), focusing especially on their interdependence with human settlements and on protected areas, came out of discussions at the Fifth World Parks Congress, held in Durban, South Africa, in September 2003.

 

Since February 2004, the program has been an initiative of the Task Force on Cities and Protected Areas of the IUCN World Commission on Protected Areas.

 

IUCN, founded in 1948, is a federation of governments, public agencies, and nongovernmental organizations in some 140 countries. As is typical of IUCN’s activities, this effort will involve organizations and individuals from many countries. Although human settlements will be its central theme, the program will touch on all aspects of MTE conservation and management. 

 

B.  THE FIVE MEDITERRANEAN-TYPE ECOSYSTEMS

 

Mediterranean-type ecosystems are defined by a climate of mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers, with sunny skies the rule even in winter.  MTEs are found in five widely separated regions of the world and cover parts of more than two dozen countries.  The five regions are:

 

Australia: southern parts of the states of South Australia, Victoria, and Western Australia;

 

California: all of the U.S. state of California excluding desert and steppe, reaching into small parts of the state of Oregon and the Mexican state of Baja California;

 

Central Chile: extending over the middle third of the country;

 

South Africa: limited to a small area of coastal Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces; and

 

Mediterranean region: a large area around the Mediterranean Sea covering all or part of some thirty countries, stretching in an irregular pattern from the Canary Islands and Madeira in the Atlantic into western Asia. The largest MTE areas in this region are in Spain, followed by Turkey, Morocco, and Italy.

 

On maps, delineation of MTEs varies according to the indicators used. The “broad sense” definition used by many ecologists who work in MTEs seems appropriate for the program and is used in this paper (see Note 1).        

 

C.  SHARED CHARACTERISTICS AND PROBLEMS 

 

Although there are many differences among them, the five Mediterranean-type regions share certain characteristics and problems:

 

Biodiversity:  MTEs have very high concentrations of biological diversity. For example, although they cover only about 2.25 percent of the earth’s land area, they contain 20 percent of its named vascular plant species, including over 26,000 endemic species.  Per unit of area, MTEs face greater immediate threats than any other species-rich regions and for that reason are global conservation priorities.  (See Note 3b for definition of terms.)     

 

Water:  Precipitation is concentrated in winter and highly variable from year to year. Sometimes there are several years

of drought; at other times, rain comes in massive storms that cause floods. Quality of ground and surface water suffers from buildup of pollutants on the ground during dry periods, followed by rapid flushing by heavy rains. 

 

Fire:  Wildfires are a natural, or longtime human-caused, part of MTEs, which are defined as “fire-adapted ecosystems”; in fact, many plant species in them need fire to regenerate. However, fires along the urban-wildland interface and in forest settlements can be very destructive of human life and property. Fire control is a controversial issue in these regions. If fires are suppressed, fuel builds up and makes the inevitable human-caused or natural fire harder to stop. If fires are allowed to burn, they can get out of control. The special circumstances of such fire-adapted ecosystems are not always understood by decision-makers and need to be considered in national and international discussions on fire policy.     

 

Climate change, air pollution, and human health:  Global warming is predicted to make summers hotter and drier in MTEs.  As a result, people will breathe more fine dust, and more ground-level ozone will occur in urban areas (both are serious health hazards). In addition, wildfires will be more frequent and extensive, and plants and animals will be more stressed and vulnerable to pests and diseases.  

 

Urbanization and population growth:  Urbanization in MTEs takes many forms, including sprawling cities, informal settlements, expanding resorts and agricultural communities, and second homes in the countryside. MTEs are attractive places to live and magnets for migration. They include twelve of the world’s hundred largest urban agglomerations. (Note 1 lists all MTE cities of one million population and larger.)

 

Tourism:  MTEs are among the world’s most popular holiday destinations.  Tourism, especially the conventional kind, adds to environmental stress.  

 

Agriculture and forestry:  Clearing of indigenous vegetation for industrial farming, grazing, forest plantations, and even extensive greenhouse complexes continues in many areas. (In the Mediterranean Basin, however, moderate grazing and coppicing have been traditions for centuries and are seen as conservation tools. Abandonment of traditional farms and agricultural practices result in loss of biodiversity. In Australia, moderate grazing of livestock has been part of MTEs for thousands of years.)     

 

Invasive species:  Invasive alien species of plants and animals displace indigenous species and disrupt natural systems and are a difficult challenge in MTEs. Exotic plants often build up fuel for summer fires. (Alien species are less of a problem in the Mediterranean Basin than in the other four regions.)

 

Desertification:  The more arid parts of MTEs are vulnerable to desertification from overgrazing, invasive species, and overdrawing of groundwater.

 

Lack of understanding:  Those who live in MTEs or make decisions about them are often unaware that MTEs differ in fundamental ways from other ecosystems. Policies, lifestyles, textbooks, and training can be based on places that have very different climates and vegetation. Many scientists and conservationists who are unfamiliar with MTEs have misconceptions about them.

 

Lack of a voice in world conservation:  Although MTEs are one of the most important and most threatened major ecosystem types on earth, they have relatively low visibility in the international conservation community.          

 

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NOTE 1.  MTE REGIONS AND COUNTRIES

 

a.  BOUNDARIES OF MTEs

 

Like other large-scale ecosystems, MTEs have no precise boundaries.  The “broad sense” definition of MTEs used by many ecologists is based primarily on climate, but also on vegetation and soils.  Thus, MTEs are not coextensive with the “Mediterranean” climate type (“warm with dry summer,” or “dry summer subtropical”) in the modified Köppen climate classification system mapped in many world atlases. 

 

b.  COUNTRIES AND AREAS WITH MTEs

 

In almost all the countries and areas listed below, only part of the territory lies within an MTE, even in the “broad sense” of the term.

   

Australia (states of South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia)

 

Chile (central third)

 

South Africa (coastal parts of the provinces of Western Cape and Eastern Cape)

 

California floristic province:  Mexico (state of Baja California); United States (states of California, Oregon)

 

Greater Mediterranean region:

  Albania

  Algeria

  Bosnia and Herzegovina

  Bulgaria

  Croatia

  Cyprus

  Egypt

  France

  Gibraltar

  Greece

  Iran

  Iraq

  Israel

  Italy

  Jordan

  Lebanon

  Libya

  Malta

  Monaco

  Montenegro

  Morocco

  Palestinian territories

  Portugal

  San Marino

  Serbia

  Slovenia

  Spain

  Syria

  Tunisia

  Turkey

  Ukraine (Crimea)

 

NOTE 2.  MAJOR CITIES IN MTES

 

The following list of urban agglomerations in MTEs with populations of one million or more is based on city  ranking and data in T. Brinkhoff, “The Principal Agglomerations of the World,” www. citypopulation.de, 16 September 2003.  “Urban agglomerations” include the central city and neighboring communities linked to it.  (Many other important cities are located in MTEs.  Several of those listed include World Heritage Sites, as do others.)

 

RANK  CITY, POPULATION (MILLIONS)

                                      

8      Los Angeles, California, USA, 17.4

22    Istanbul, Turkey, 10.9

35    San Francisco, California, USA, 7.2

53    Santiago, Chile, 5.2

54    Baghdad, Iraq, 5.2

55    Madrid, Spain, 5.2

58    Alexandria, Egypt, 5.1

70    Algiers, Algeria, 4.2

78    Casablanca, Morocco, 3.8

79    Barcelona, Spain, 3.8

93    Athens, Greece, 3.5

99    Rome, Italy, 3.3

103   Cape Town, South Africa, 3.2

106   Amman, Jordan, 3.0

112   Naples, Italy, 3.0

113   San Diego, California, USA, 3.0

115   Tel Aviv, Israel, 3.0

120   Lisbon, Portugal, 2.9

131   Damascus, Syria, 2.7

135   Izmir, Turkey, 2.6

140   Aleppo, Syria, 2.6

164   Beirut, Lebanon, 2.2

170   Tunis, Tunisia, 2.1

182   Sacramento, California, USA, 2.0

188   Rabat, Morocco, 1.9

266   Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico, 1.5

280   Marseille, France, 1.4

281   Perth, Western Australia, Australia, 1.4

284   Valencia, Spain, 1.4

286   Bursa, Turkey, 1.4

300   Gaza, Palestinian territories, 1.3

311   Porto, Portugal, 1.3

317   Adana, Turkey, 1.3

331   Mosul, Iraq, 1.2

337   Seville, Spain, 1.2

359   Oran, Algeria, 1.2

366   Adelaide, South Australia, Australia, 1.1

387   Port Elizabeth, South Africa, 1.1

392   Fes, Morocco, 1.0

409   Fresno, California, USA, 1.0

410   Gaziantep, Turkey, 1.0

 

NOTE 3.  SOURCES AND DEFINITIONS

 

a.  SOURCES

 

This paper is based on discussions with scientists and conservation leaders from a number of MTE countries, as well as various documents of international organizations, academic papers, and Web sites.    

 

Four recent books have been particularly helpful as overviews: 

 

-- Jacques Blondel and James Aronson.  1999.  Biology and Wildlife of the Mediterranean Region.  Oxford University Press, Oxford.

 

-- P.R. Dallman.  1998.  Plant Life in the World’s Mediterranean Climates: California, Chile, South Africa, Australia, and the Mediterranean Basin.  University of California Press, Berkeley.

 

-- A.T. Grove and Oliver Rackham.  2001.  The Nature of Mediterranean Europe: An Ecological History.  Yale University Press, New Haven.

 

-- P.W. Rundel, G. Montenegro, and F.M. Jaksic, eds.  1998.  Landscape Disturbance and Biodiversity in Mediterranean-type Ecosystems.  Springer, Berlin. 

 

b.  DEFINITIONS

 

Vascular plants are flowering and other “higher” types of plants, as distinguished from cellular plants such as algae. Endemic species are species limited to a particular region or locality.