Governing migration from a distance: interactions between climate, migration and security in the South Mediterranean

Links between security and migration are well established and are associated with the meaning, status, and practice of borders in the international political system. This article assesses how and with what effects the effects of environmental and climate change have entered this relationship between migration and security. It does so by assessing the EU’s external governance of migration in “South Mediterranean Partner Countries” (SMPCs): Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, and Tunisia. It is argued that a focus on promoting “adaptation” and building “resilience” has developed that is consistent with the logic of governing migration from a distance. However, the article challenges ideas that environmental/climate change act as simple migration “triggers” and instead explores implications of movement towards and not away from risk, as well as the potential for populations to be trapped in areas that expose them to risk. It is shown that both have important implications for the relationship between migration, environmental/climate change, and security in SMPCs

Prospective agro-alimentaire en Mediterranee

*IAM 3191 route de Mende 34060 MONTPELLIER CEDEX 1 (FRA) Diffusion du document : IAM 3191 route de Mende 34060 MONTPELLIER CEDEX 1 (FRA)National audienceEn premier lieu est traitee la question des marges de progres techniques existant dans l'agriculture mediterraneenne et de ses conditions de mise en oeuvre. Ensuite est effectuee une perspective de la demande alimentaire, mettant en evidence les situations d'autosuffisance ou d'excedent du Nord mediterraneen et l'insuffisance des productions, donc du role des importations du Sud. Enfin, sont abordees les relations entre developpement agricole et environnement (eau, sol, evolution de l'agro-alimentaire)

Assessing the use and influence of sustainability indicators at the European periphery

Malta is a member of the European Union (EU), but faces constraints unique to its status both as a small island nation and its geographical location on the periphery of the EU. Several initiatives to develop suites of sustainability indicators (SIs) have been attempted in the Maltese Islands over the past two decades but there has been little corresponding follow-up to examine the extent to which such SIs are used by practitioners and influencepolicy. This paper presents anassessment of the use and influence of SIs in Malta by drawing upon the results of two quite different means of enquiry:(i) a more traditional approach in the social sciences using semi-structured and one-to-one interviews conducted with key stakeholders involved with SIs in Malta, and (ii) an innovative participatory approach, called Triple Task (TT) implemented within a workshop context, where stakeholders were placed in teams and asked to explore the use of SIs. Based upon the results obtained with these two methods of enquiry the paper provides insights into the problems of adoption of SIs in Malta and makes the case that rather than being seen as mutually exclusive, a combination of the two approaches provides a powerful means of triangulation to what is a complex set of issues

Extreme dry spell detection and climatology over the Mediterranean Basin during the wet season.

9 pagesInternational audienceThe E-OBS precipitation gridded data set v.10.0 is used to detect very long dry spell (VLDS) events over the entire Mediterranean Basin for the 1957–2013 period, during the wet season (September to April). The main objective is to characterize these events as climatic objects, in terms of location, spatial extent, duration, and temporal variability. In this study, 76 VLDS events were detected in the Mediterranean Basin and grouped into four spatial patterns: scattered localized (with 25 events), northeast Mediterranean (11 events), West Mediterranean (15 events), and southeast Mediterranean (25 events). Each pattern shows seasonality in events. Most of the scattered localized, northeast, and southeast events begin in September, at the beginning of the wet season. In contrast, most of the West Mediterranean events begin in the middle of the wet season. Over time, there is a slight but not significant increase in the cumulative number of days per season affected by VLDS events