World Wildlife Fund calls for the protection of ten Mediterranean forests

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has called on Mediterranean countries to undertake urgent action to safeguard ten forests that are seriously threatened by degradation in the Mediterranean basin.

The call was launched at a news conference held in Rome on Thursday on the sidelines of the meeting of the Mediterranean commission at the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP).

The WWF stressed the need to take urgent measures to save what it called hot spots in Morocco (Bou Iblane, middle Atlas), Lebanon (Jabal Harissa) Portugal (Serra de Monchique), Croatia (Velebit), France (Vallee de Taravu), Greece (Taygetos), Italy (Gennargentu), Spain (Sierra de Gudar), Tunisia (Korumerie) and Turkey (Western Kure).

According to the WWF, nearly 83% of these forests have been destroyed by fires, bad management, tourism and overexploitation. These factors have devastating effects on bio-diversity, entailing soil erosion, desertification and pollution of water resources.

Fires alone entail every year the loss of 1% of forests, the WWF said calling for growing green belts to fight desertification and for updating legal texts to protect Mediterranean forests.

The WWF operates in 96 countries.