The market evolution of medicinal and aromatic plants: a global supply chain analysis and an application of the delphi method in the mediterranean area

There is an increasing evidence for the significant value and potential of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPs) worldwide. Among other non-wood forest products, MAPs are considered a key element of sustainable forest management and economic development. As part of Mediterranean cultural heritage, these plants are a major driver of rural tourism, in many areas representing an important raw material for various bio-based industrial sectors. Besides their economic value, MAPs enhance social integration and maintain gender balance as harvesting and processing MAPs is clearly a female dominated task. Despite the prominent contribution of MAPs to local development, conservation of biodiversity and the development of the traditional Mediterranean food system, many challenges and knowledge gaps could potentially place the sector's development at risk. The aim of this work is to examine the present situation of the MAPs sector in the most productive countries around the Mediterranean and to identify future challenges and priority actions to develop the MAPs sector in the region. To do so, a supply chain analysis was performed to identify the main stakeholders involved. Various experts from Croatia, France, Greece, Spain, and Tunisia participated in the SWOT analysis and the Delphi approach employed in this study. The results highlight the main challenges facing the sector in Mediterranean countries. Five groups of challenges are identified, related mainly to certification and labelling, life quality and wellbeing, market development, research development, and transforming and processing. To overcome these challenges, a set of actions is validated by the interviewed experts with the aim of improving marketing strategies and including various innovations related to political, legal, organisational, and institutional frameworks.This research was developed within the framework of the project "Innovation Networks of Cork, Resins and Edibles in the Mediterranean basin"-INCREDIBLE. This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 774632. The authors gratefully acknowledge also the support provided by the project "Eating the wild: Improving the value-chain of MediterraneanWild Food Products (WFP)"-Wild Food (Reference Number: 2019-SECTION2-29)

Truffle Market Evolution: An Application of the Delphi Method

Background: The objective of this study was to analyze the current situation of the truffle sector in the main producing countries of the Mediterranean area. Additionally, we identified the challenges for the future and the priority actions to develop the truffle sector in the region. Methods: We used a Delphi process approach, and we selected a total of 17 expert panelists in different positions within the supply chain of the target countries (Spain, France, Italy, Croatia, and Greece). Results: The results obtained allowed us to have a complete description of the current truffle supply chain. We confirmed an evolution of the sector due to the cultivation success of several Tuber species. The maturity of the sector has produced shifts in the roles that form the traditional truffle supply chain operators. We confirmed the trend of a decrease of collectors that hunt truffles in the wild and sell to small travelling buyers, whilst truffle hunters that collect for farmers and specialty wholesalers are emerging. However, a trend of truffle price decrease in the last few years has alerted the sector. Conclusions: As production increases due to truffle cultivation, it will be necessary to promote truffle consumption. We identified actions to develop the truffle sector: (a) strengthen the link between truffles, tourism, and gastronomy; (b) increase the effort at European level for the recognition of truffle production, helping to develop truffle culture and marketing; (c) increase the awareness and consumption of truffles among consumers; and (d) develop tourism workshops for truffle farmers.This work was funded by the ‘Innovation Networks of Cork, Resins and Edibles in the Mediterranean basin’ (INCREdible) project, financed by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme under grant agreement N° 774632

Investigating sacred natural sites and protected areas for forest area changes in Italy

Forests will be critical to mitigate the effects of climate and global changes. Therefore, knowledge on the drivers of forest area changes are important. Although the drivers of deforestation are well known, drivers of afforestation are almost unexplored. Moreover, protected areas (PAs) effectively decrease deforestation, but other types of area-based conservation measures exist. Among these, sacred natural sites (SNS) deliver positive conservation out- comes while making up an extensive “shadow network” of conservation. How- ever, little is known on the capacity of SNS to regulate land-use changes. Here, we explored the role of SNS and PAs as drivers of forest loss and forest gain in Italy between 1936 and 2018. We performed a descriptive analysis and modeled forest gain and forest loss by means of spatial binomial generalized linear models with residual autocovariates. The main drivers of forest area changes were geographical position and elevation, nonetheless SNS and PAs significantly decreased forest loss and increased forest gain. Although the neg- ative relationship between SNS and forest loss is a desirable outcome, the posi- tive relationship with forest gain is concerning because it could point to abandonment of cultural landscapes with consequent loss of open habitats. We suggest a legal recognition of SNS and an active ecological monitoring and planning to help maintain their positive role in biodiversity conservation. As a novel conservation planning approach, SNS can be used as stepping stones between PAs increasing connectivity and also to conserve small habitat patches threatened by human activities

The state of the world’s urban ecosystems: What can we learn from trees, fungi, and bees?

Publication history: Accepted - 2 July 2020; Published online - 29 September 2020Trees are a foundation for biodiversity in urban ecosystems and therefore must be able to withstand global change and biological challenges over decades and even centuries to prevent urban ecosystems from deteriorating. Tree quality and diversity should be prioritized over simply numbers to optimize resilience to these challenges. Successful establishment and renewal of trees in cities must also consider belowground (e.g., mycorrhizas) and aboveground (e.g., pollinators) interactions to ensure urban ecosystem longevity, biodiversity conservation and continued provision of the full range of ecosystem services provided by trees. Positive interactions with nature inspire people to live more sustainable lifestyles that are consistent with stopping biodiversity loss and to participate in conservation actions such as tree‐planting and supporting pollinators. Interacting with nature simultaneously provides mental and physical health benefits to people. Since most people live in cities, here we argue that urban ecosystems provide important opportunities for increasing engagement with nature and educating people about biodiversity conservation. While advocacy on biodiversity must communicate in language that is relevant to a diverse audience, over‐simplified messaging, may result in unintended negative outcomes. For example, tree planting actions typically focus on numbers rather than diversity while the call to save bees has inspired unsustainable proliferation of urban beekeeping that may damage wild bee conservation through increased competition for limited forage in cities and disease spread. Ultimately multiple ecosystem services must be considered (and measured) to optimize their delivery in urban ecosystems and messaging to promote the value of nature in cities must be made widely available and more clearly defined.Animal Plant Health Agency (UK). Grant Number: 88566670

Study of sacred woods and groves in Vikos-Aoos national park: Traditional management practices, perceptions and values of local societies for the conservation of their natural environment

The present thesis refers to the sacred trees and groves of 23 villages in Zagori (Pindos mountain). Such sacred features are important elements of cultural landscapes and their survival as symbols redolent of ancient taboos, old traditions and faiths. During 2006 we involved interviews with 145 residents using voucher specimens and interviewees were asked to list tree values, uses and qualities. The following year we surveyed 231 sites and recorded the species, size, condition and artifacts associated with 824 trees encountered on these sites. The Zagorians recognize to their trees utilitarian, aesthetic, historical, symbolic and ecological values. Local knowledge about trees is slowly disappearing along with the older informants, while the youngest informants are not able to describe tree uses and indeed fail to recognize some tree species. Small chapels or shrines characteristically guard the entrances to Zagori villages. The trees associated with such sites are typically evergreen or broadleaved oaks or maples and often contain artifacts such as the chapel bell or a cross incised into the bark. Plane trees are associated with the central squares of villages as important social trees. Another important feature of Zagorian landscapes are sacred woods or groves. The Orthodox Church used sacredness during the time of the Ottoman occupation to govern land use within the villages. In that sense woods were defined as sacred in order to manage and control use, to protect the settlement from natural disasters, to protect the village aquifer, to reserve trees for community needs i.e. public works and to use them as last resort to be used in times of exceptional need Additionally, sacred groves also sometimes served as festival places. Fear of the supernatural successfully protected the sacred vegetation until the recent past as local people feared that felling them might cause misfortune, diseases or even death to the wrong-doer, their family and animals. In modem times antecedent systems of local and religious restrictions have broken down and we frequently encountered sacred trees which were obviously forgotten, neglected, damaged or had even been felled. Interviews with younger villagers suggest that respect for nature, local history and tradition may nowadays be more effective than fear and they add that continued protection of these sites and trees now needs something other than the fear of God and threats of spiritual punishment. Thus is seems that there is an urgent need for conservation of these fragile cultural landscapes that are charged with social and ecologically important values and qualities. Considering the latest, the scientific community recently has recognized in the sacred groves a new value: this of the conservation of the cultural and biological diversity of the planet.Η παρούσα διδακτορική διατριβή πραγματεύεται το θέμα των δασών και των δέντρων που η κοινωνία του Ζαγορίου προστάτευε, και συνεχίζει σε μεγάλο βαθμό να προστατεύει, επικαλούμενη λόγους ιερότητας. Ως 'ιερότητα' ορίζουμε την αποτροπή της κοπής λόγω μιας σειράς απαγορεύσεων, που σχετίζονται με τιμωρίες υπερφυσικού χαρακτήρα και εκλαμβάνονται ως απόρροια της καταπάτησης των πραγμάτων που ανήκουν στην Εκκλησία, στους Αγίους και στο Θεό. Η έρευνα πραγματοποιήθηκε σε 23 χωριά του Ζαγορίου. Η μεθοδολογία ακολούθησε τόσο τις μεθόδους της σύγχρονης Λαογραφίας, όσο και αυτές της Πολιτισμικής Οικολογίας. Οι κάτοικοι του Ζαγορίου αναγνωρίζουν στα δέντρα της περιοχής τους αξίες χρηστικές, αισθητικές, ιστορικές, συμβολικές και οικολογικές. Η γνώση για δέντρα που παύουν να συμβάλλουν στην τοπική οικονομία χάνεται μαζί με την ικανότητα των νεότερων πληροφορητών να τα ξεχωρίζουν και να τα ονοματίζουν. Οι βελανιδιές και τα σφεντάμια κατεξοχήν κοσμούν τα ξωκλήσια του Ζαγορίου και τα πλατάνια τις πλατείες του. Πολλά από τα παραπάνω αποτελούν Πολιτισμικά Τροποποιημένα Δέντρα, τα οποία φέρουν σημάδια της ανθρώπινης επέμβασης. Όσον αφορά στα δάση, αμιγείς δασώδεις θέσεις έχουν διατηρηθεί μέσω τοπικά προσαρμοσμένων συστημάτων, τα οποία, στην πλειονότητα των περιπτώσεων, σχετίζονται με θρησκευτικού τύπου απαγορεύσεις. Στο Ζαγόρι τέτοια δάση απαντούν ως δάση αφορισμένα, εκκλησιαστικά ή βακούφικα (βακούφια), κουρί και λιβάδια. Τα δάση αυτά λειτούργησαν στην ουσία ως αυστηρά συστήματα ελεγχόμενης διαχείρισης με μεσολαβητή το θείο και εκπροσώπους του επί της γης τη μορφή της Παναγίας και πλήθος αυστηρών Αγίων. Προστάτευαν οικισμούς και καλλιέργειες από φυσικές καταστροφές, εξασφάλιζαν τη διαφύλαξη των φυσικών πόρων και τη συλλογική χρήση τους για το σύνολο της Κοινότητας, λειτούργησαν ως αποθεματικά δάση, εξυπηρέτησαν κοινοτικές ανάγκες, τόσο τακτικές, όσο και έκτακτες που κάποιες φορές μπορεί και να απαιτούσαν τον αφανισμό του ιερού δάσους προκειμένου η ξυλεία του να χρησιμοποιηθεί για σκοπό αγαθό ή ιερό. Συμπληρωματικά με τις παραπάνω λειτουργίες εκπλήρωναν επίσης σκοπούς αισθητικούς κι εξωραϊστικούς. Υπερφυσικές τιμωρίες, κάποιες φορές σοβαρές και αμετάκλητες, απειλούσαν κάθε επίδοξο παραβάτη, τον ίδιο ή την οικογένεια του, επιστρατεύοντας τη δύναμη του υπερφυσικού. Όσο πλησιάζουμε τη σύγχρονη εποχή η τήρηση των απαγορεύσεων μοιάζει να μην αποτελεί πάντα τον κανόνα. Παρόλα αυτά, όπως η επιτόπια έρευνα έδειξε και η καταγραφή στο πεδίο πιστοποίησε, η ιερότητα κατάφερε να διατηρήσει με συνέπεια συγκεκριμένα δάση και δέντρα του Ζαγορίου. Αυτά κινδυνεύουν σήμερα από νέες απειλές: την υποβάθμιση του πολιτισμικού τοπίου στο οποίο εντάσσονται, την εγκατάλειψη που τα καθιστά ευάλωτα στην πυρκαγιά, την απουσία διαχείρισης και την έλλειψη θεσμικής προστασίας. Οι Ζαγορίσιοι, αποποιούνται παλαιές δοξασίες, μα επιθυμούν να συνεχίσουν να διατηρούν τα γηραιά δέντρα και δάση, που εκείνες προστάτεψαν, από σεβασμό στην ιστορία και στη φύση, όπως οι ίδιοι υποστηρίζουν, ενώ επιπλέον, η επιστημονική κοινότητα, έχει πρόσφατα αναγνωρίσει στα ιερά δάση της γης μια νέα αξία: αυτή της διατήρησης της πολιτισμικής και βιολογικής ποικιλίας του πλανήτη

THALIS-SAGE “Conservation through religion. The sacred groves of Epirus”

Unraveling the socio-ecological hsitory and dynamics of sacred forests in NW Greec

Exploring spatial and temporal resilience in socio-ecological systems: evidence from sacred forests in Epirus, Greece

1. Socio-ecological resilience is the capacity of a system to adapt to changing ecological and social disturbances. Its assessment is extremely important to integrate long-term management of ecological and social features of natural ecosystems. This is especially true for Sacred Natural Sites, such as sacred forests and groves, to reveal the influence of social processes in ecosystem recovery and/or degradation. 2. Using tree ages determined through dendrochronology and tree population size-class distributions collected in five sacred forests in Epirus (NW Greece), we explore spatial and temporal dynamics of resilience in a socio-ecological system, identifying which cultural and social elements characterize sacred forest resilience in space and time. 3. Our main results show that sacred forests in Epirus underwent periods of varying tree establishment rate, depending on the intensity of human activities and historical disturbance events. 4. We also identified strong evidence of the role of the social component (i.e., the church, where present and the cultural praxis associated with it) in determining the spatial extent of the forests’ current recovery phase, and thus the overall resilience of the system. 4. Policy implications. The linkage of sacred forests’ ecological resilience with changing socio-cultural practices over both temporal and spatial scales is crucial for guiding conservation and restoration strategies. We argue that greater attention should be paid to the role of the social component of socio-ecological systems and specifically sacred natural sites in providing both a nucleus of established forest habitat and the conditions necessary for it to enable forest recovery and restoration

Exploring evolving spiritual values of forests in Europe and Asia: a transition hypothesis toward re-spiritualizing forests

The development of societies, including spiritual development, is closely connected to forests. The larger interrelations among changing societies, transforming forest landscapes, and evolving spiritual values related to forests have yet to be extensively considered. Addressing this research gap is important to avoid the neglect of spiritual values in forest policy and management. Our exploratory study investigates spiritual values of forests from European and Asian perspectives, assessing 13 countries. Based on expert knowledge from 18 interdisciplinary experts, we first define forest spiritual values (forest spirituality). We then elaborate on the idea that forest spirituality evolves as societies and landscapes change, and propose a transition hypothesis for forest spirituality. We identify indicators and drivers and portray four stages of such a transition using country-specific examples. We find that during a first stage (“nature is powerful”), forest spirituality is omnipresent through the abundance of sacred natural sites and practices of people who often directly depend on forests for their livelihoods. An alternative form of spirituality is observed in the second stage (“taming of nature”). Connected to increasing transformation of forest landscapes and intensifying land-use practices, “modern” religions guide human–nature interrelations. In a third stage (“rational management of nature”), forest spirituality is overshadowed by planned rational forest management transforming forests into commodities for the economy, often focusing on provisioning ecosystem services. During a fourth stage (“reconnecting with nature”), a revival of forest spirituality (re-spiritualization) can be observed due to factors such as urbanization and individualizing spirituality. Our core contribution is in showing the connections among changing forest perceptions, changing land-use governance and practices, and changing forest spirituality. Increasing the understanding of this relationship holds promise for supporting forest policy-making and management in addressing trade-offs between spiritual values and other aspects of forests

Long-term size and range changes of the Griffon Vulture Gyps fulvus population in the Balkans: a review

The Eurasian Griffon Vulture Gyps fulvus is a large Palearctic, Indohimalayan and Afrotropical Old-World vulture. The species' range is vast, encompassing territories from the Pyrenees to the Himalayas. We reviewed and analysed a long-term data set for Griffon Vulture in the Balkans to estimate the change in its population size and range between 1980 and 2019. After a large historical decline, the Griffon Vulture population slightly increased in the last 39 years (lambda = 1.02) and reached 445-565 pairs in 2019. We recorded a gradual increase of Griffon Vulture subpopulations in Serbia (lambda = 1.08 +/- 0.003), Bulgaria (lambda = 1.08 +/- 0.003) and Croatia (lambda = 1.05 +/- 0.005) and steep to a moderate decline of the species subpopulations in Greece (lambda = 0.88 +/- 0.005) and North Macedonia (lambda = 0.94 +/- 0.01). However, species range contracted to half of its former range in the same period. It occurred in 42 UTM squares in the 1980-1990 period and only 20 UTM squares between 2011 and 2019 and concentrated into three source subpopulations in Bulgaria, Serbia, and Croatia. Following reintroductions of the Griffon Vulture in Bulgaria, new colonies were formed at three novel localities after 2010. Regular movements of individuals between the different subpopulations exist nowadays. Therefore, preservation of both current and former core areas used for breeding and roosting is essential for species conservation in the region. However, the Griffon Vulture still faces severe threats and risk of local extinction. Various hazards such as poisoning, collision with energy infrastructure, disturbance and habitat alteration are depleting the status of the Balkan population and its full recovery. Further studies should analyse age-specific survival and mortality, recruitment, genetic relatedness, spatial use to inform the viability of this population in the future