At Eye Level
How the Mediterranean Is Looking after its Biodiversity

How we feed ourselves in cities, is very much dependent on what is produced in rural areas. This is why a coalition of organizations is working in the Mediterranean region to protect biodiversity by supporting the value of local traditional communities.

By Jonaya de Castro and Laura Sobral

What is the greatest harm of human populations concentrating in the city? “Living in cities most of the time, we have lost our connection with nature,” says Burcu, a nature and cultural program expert in the Yolda initiative, one of the NGOs from the Alliance. The deterioration and abandonment of cultural land-use practices have negatively affected ecological diversity across a diverse range of Mediterranean landscapes. While our forests are more exposed to fires due to climate change, areas where goats graze are less likely to catch fire. This is because goats eat flammable pastures and naturally create fire corridors in the forest. Local communities—in this case nomadic pastoralists—are key allies in the fight against wildfires in the Mediterranean. 

The Alliance for Mediterranean Nature and Culture (AMNC) is a coalition of 13 different organizations working mostly in the Mediterranean region. They work towards a sustainable approach that employs traditional knowledge and believe it can be a crucial step towards reversing the declining state of agricultural, pastoral and forestry systems and thereby reducing climate change and enhancing biodiversity. The alliance is developing a global, collaborative research program, lobbying, and information dissemination for the general public, and consumers. An important objective is to persuade policymakers of the benefits that cultural practices such as mobile pastoralism, terraced agriculture and traditional forestry bring to nature, the climate, and all societies. AMNC is also developing educational and training activities in collaboration with city councils, universities, central government ministries, and managers, to improve ancient culture and submit reports to relevant authorities.

“We believe that human communities are the major agents who shape the landscapes of the Mediterranean. So, our cultural landscapes approach is distinguished from other conservation perspectives because the traditional way of conserving nature is usually based on the dichotomy of nature and people,” explains Burcu.

As an example of their actions, an international workshop in the city of Mersin, Turkey, in April 2022, brought together people from France, Greece, Lebanon, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia, and Turkey to establish a common framework to measure the benefits of cultural landscapes. Traditional ecological knowledge is very valuable. People from cities are inspired by it and, as biodiversity is also in urban industries, nature is also there. Perhaps it is a smarter way to understand that we cannot simply detach ourselves. 
   

The Right to Protect the Climate as a Public Policy

The ultimate goal is to protect the climate and biodiversity. Losing the cultural practices that are all connected to each other in an ecosystem is obviously losing species and biodiversity. One of their action plans is to secure the rights of these communities in national, regional, and international policies. Sometimes it is very difficult for nomadic communities to move because governments and states want these people to be settled. It is easier to control them if they are a settled community as when they are mobile, they do not have an address and governments want them to be registered in one particular location. 

The right to move is one of the most important rights that the Yolda Initiative together with its partners from the AMNC tries to help the communities with. The fight is continued access to pastures and sites that their ancestors had been moving through for many years. 

These locations are not as easy to access nowadays due to urbanization and other intensive agricultural practices that are occurring. Sometimes, they do not have access to water or other facilities such as education or health. It is fundamental to recognize these cultural practices in society at a policy level, which will help to keep these cultures alive. 

Culture Connecting Past and Future

Imagine hundreds of goats and sheep moving through the city centre of Madrid! It sounds intriguing as well as strange. Traditionally, ancient road migration passed through the city centre of Madrid with their animals. To avoid severe summer drought and allow the regeneration of the dehesas and pastures in central Spain, herds walked hundreds of kilometres from June to October. Currently, as Madrid has agreed to accompany the crossing with some security measures and structure, this has become a cultural event.  The city recognized that this was actually a high-spirited and festive occasion. It then began to resemble a festival. After being convinced by the locals in this community, it is now possible to join this festival in Madrid and see hundreds of sheep passing by with their shepherds. It is called the Fiesta de la Trashumancia in Madrid. The organizing body of this event is the “Trashumancia y Naturaleza” Association. They are a nature conservation organization based in Spain and are also part of the AMNC Alliance for Mediterranean Nature and Culture. 

The idea links into the rights of fair, equitable, healthy, and ecological food for everyone. How we feed ourselves in cities is very much dependent on what is produced in rural areas. It is very connected. “If we protect these people's lifestyle, they can continue their own way of living and producing, and cities can receive fair goods, healthy and safe products, without any chemicals in them,” alerts Burcu. And if the producers have direct access to markets, we as citizens, can buy their products at fairer prices. 

Co-Thinking about the Future

The Yolda initiative has built a relationship of trust over the last 12 years with Sarıkeçililer, a specific nomadic pastoralists group, and they know some key persons in the community.  This community also has its own kind of governance structure: a woman leader who always represents them when it comes to the rights of the community; the spokesperson in conversations with government, international bodies, and the media. Whenever something happens, such as receiving project proposals from someone who wants to work with them, the first move is to consult the community and the decision occurs only with their consent and inclusion.

They recently organized a workshop with stakeholders from many different fields to co-think about the future of these kinds of nomadic practices and how circular economic models can be built in cities; building bridges between these local producers and cities.

“It was really inspiring for me when we met some policymakers. At first sight, I thought that they would not be that interested in the topic, but after spending two days with us and local community representatives, they remarked, 'How come we didn't do anything before now for these communities? How did we just ignore them?'” Burcu says.

Many collaborations and partnerships emerged from the two-day workshop. “This is really important for us, because sometimes we don't have the capacity to do much; but with partnerships, with collaborations, we can.” says Burcu. If we talk more about these practices in urban environments, the city gets closer to the lifestyles that were living in these places a long time ago as well as their organic and healthy products. Maybe we can see how we in the cities are connected in order to improve a sustainable way of living together.