Overall (first) results of the ‘100 questions for biodiversity conservation in Mediterranean-type regions of the world’ initiative

(Oral)

Francisco Moreira

fmoreira@cibio.up.pt

CIBIO, University of Porto, Portugal

,

Pedro Beja

CIBIO/InBIO, University of Porto, Campus Agrário de Vairão, 4485-601 Vairão, Portugal, Portugal

,

Ana Filipa Filipe

CIBIO/InBIO, University of Porto, Campus Agrário de Vairão, 4485-601 Vairão, Portugal, Portugal

,

Lluís Brotons

InForest Jru (CTFC-CREAF), Crta. Sant Llorenç de Morunys, Km 2., 25280 Solsona, Spain; CREAF, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallés, Spain; CSIC, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallés, Spain., Spain

,

Miguel Clavero

Estación Biológica de Doñana-CSIC, Sevilla, Spain, Spain

,

John Thompson

CEFE/CNRS, Campus du CNRS 1919, route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier 5, France, France

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Danilo Russo

Wildlife Research Unit, Dipartimento di Agraria, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, via Università 100, 80055 Portici (Napoli), Italy, Italy

,

Leonardo Ancilloto

Wildlife Research Unit, Dipartimento di Agraria, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, via Università 100, 80055 Portici (Napoli), Italy, Italy

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Adriano Martinoli

Unità di Analisi e Gestione delle Risorse Ambientali, Guido Tosi Research Group, Dipartimento di Scienze Teoriche e Applicate, Universita' degli Studi dell'Insubria, Via J. H. Dunant, 3 - I-21100 Varese, Italy, Italy

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Margarita Arianoutsou

Department of Ecology and Systematics, Faculty of Biology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 15784 Greece, Greece

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Panayiotis Dimitrakopoulos

Biodiversity Conservation Laboratory, Department of Environment, University of the Aegean, 81100 Mytilene, Lesvos, Greece, Greece

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Linda Olsvig-Whittaker

German Protestant Institute of Archaeology in the Holy Land, Research Unit of the German Archaeological Institute, Auguste Victoria Compound, P.O. Box 184 63, 91 184 Jerusalem, Israel, Israel

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Eliezer Frankenberg

National Natural History Collections, The Hebrew University Of Jerusalem. Jeruslem 91904, Israel., Israel

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Jeffrey Clary

Natural Reserve System, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA, United States

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Peggy Fiedler

Natural Reserve System, University of California, USA, United States

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Phil Rundel

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California (UCLA), Los Angeles CA 90095, USA., United States

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Raquel Fagoaga

Resource Ecology Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands, Netherlands

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Milena Holmgren

Resource Ecology Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands, Netherlands

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Maria Martinez-Harms

ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions, Centre for Biodiversity & Conservation Science, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia, Australia

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Pablo Marquet

Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidade Católica de Chile, Casilla 114-D, Santiago, Chile, Chile

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Patricio Pliscoff-Varas

Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Pontificia Universidade Católica de Chile, Casilla 114-D, Santiago, Chile, Chile

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Jasper Slingsby

South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON), Fynbos Node. Private Bag X07, Claremont 7735, South Africa, and Centre for Statistics in Ecology, Environment and Conservation, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701, South Africa., South Africa

,

Karen Esler

Department of Conservation Ecology and Entomology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa and Centre for Invasion Biology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa., South Africa

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Nicky Allsopp

South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON), Fynbos Node. Private Bag X07, Claremont 7735, South Africa, South Africa

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Grant Wardell-Johnson

School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia, Australia

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Ben Miller

Biodiversity Conservation Centre, Kattidj Close, Kings Park Western Australia 6005, Australia, Australia

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Angela Wardell-Johnson

Centre for Human Rights Education, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia., Australia

Mediterranean-type ecosystems (MTEs), with their characteristic climate, occur in just five regions of the world: the Mediterranean Basin, the Cape Region of South Africa, Southwestern and South Australia, California, and central Chile. In spite of their small geographic area, they harbour a significant and exclusive proportion of the planet’s biodiversity. Biodiversity values in MTE are threatened by a range of factor including land use changes, overexploitation of natural resources, global climate changes, among others. Researchers have a key role in providing solutions for conserving biodiversity in face of these multiple stressors and socio-economic challenges.

Under the scope of the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) – Europe Section and the International Society of Mediterranean Ecologists (ISOMED), a group of researchers from the five MTE regions of the world organized an initiative to identify the 100 priority questions that,
if answered, would have a high probability of increasing the success of actions targeted at the conservation of biological diversity in the five Mediterranean regions of the world. We will present the first overall results of this exercise. A total of 1490 original questions were merged into a final 171 questions divided in 11 major topics. The three topics with higher importance were governance, climate change and habitat restoration. Further results on patterns across Mediterranean-type regions and stakeholder types, in order to identify topics of overall and regional importance, will be presented.

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