AECID - Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo

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In recent years there has been generalized environmental deterioration in the Mediterranean basin, which has been aggravated by intensive practices applied in agriculture, forestry and livestock farming, as well as in the sectors of fisheries, fish farming, industry and services.

At the end of the 60s, both the northern and the southern Mediterranean countries were capable of meeting, as a whole, nearly 90% of their domestic food demand. Nowadays, it is estimated that, in total, southern countries produce less than 60% of their needs. Furthermore, it is foreseen that in the medium and long term there will be a generalized decrease in the productive yield of the whole Mediterranean basin, as a consequence of the effects of climate change. This decrease will be much more marked in the southern countries, mainly because of the continual degradation of the soil and of the quality and availability of the water in these countries.

For its part, the overexploitation of fishing resources, together with the high levels of pollution in the Mediterranean Sea and the high population density of the coastal areas, have for years been leading to a decrease in fishing yield in the whole region. In response to this situation, in recent decades there has been an increase in fish farming, as an alternative to the pressure on fisheries, and in some cases this has given rise to significant interactions with the environment.

Moreover, in the Mediterranean basin industrial and service activity is leading to a high and unsustainable consumption of available resources, and to a ensuing production of great amounts of waste – heavy metals, persistent organic compounds, oils, fats, plastic waste, etc.- whose effects on the environment in the medium and long term are unforeseeable.

In this context, it is necessary to promote human and economic development in the Mediterranean region that is compatible with the sustainability of resources and includes the social dimension. This means the rate at which renewable resources are consumed must be lower than that at which they are produced, taking into account the load capacity of the systems involved. The amount of waste produced must be within the environment’s capacity to absorb it, while the efficiency of production processes must be optimised.

The actions to be carried out in the framework of the Azahar Programme must be focused on the following areas:

• Support for agriculture, forestry, livestock rearing, fisheries, fish farming, industry and services that incorporate the concepts and values of sustainable development.
• Promotion of the improved efficiency and productivity of resources that do not cause significant harm to the environment.
• Strengthening of the organisation, production, manufacture and marketing of products in an environmentally sustainable way.
• Identification of production alternatives, innocuous as far as the environment is concerned.