The Mediterranean Forests: Problems and management models

Abstract

The following paper presents a detailed insight about the situation of the forest management in the diversity within the Mediterranean Forests, and their response to different problems, in order to allow the development and application of a forest management model. Therefore, a survey was carried out in several partners’ areas of the PROTECT project (An Integrated European Model to Protect MEDiterranean Forests from Fire). The results provided a comparative analysis between different areas located in the Mediterranean Basin, and the analysis shows that there are several management systems that may be improved with experiences from other countries. Also, there are some common problems which need solutions in the different areas, namely forest fires. This general information also provided a good background for carefully applying and adapting different forests’ management models, both ecological and economically sustainable, in the PROTECT partners, where the problems and agents to be considered are different, giving conditions for the adaptation and development of a common model.