"The Mediterranean region will become one of the most vulnerable areas in Europe to global change. While in European Mediterranean countries the combination of climate change and land abandonment is promoting new unmanaged forest cover, increasing fire and pest risks, in the south of the basin forest intensification results in desertification as the principal threat. Forest management strategies must be directed to promoting mitigation of the effects of global change, and to guaranteeing the sustainable use of ecosystem goods and services in order to achieve a resource efficient, low-carbon economy. In fact, the defense of regional natural resources should be part of the aims in the agenda to escape from financial dependency to sustainable development. We posit that spatial analysis tools from the north could help stopping deforestation while obtaining economical benefits of landscape management in the south, and traditional knowledge from the south may help decreasing land abandonment in the north by developing eco-innovative business. In such context, the knowledge of the main technologies and techniques available and the interconnection between forestry research and business in both sides of the Mediterranean are two of the best ways to increase efficiency under the available budget.
The Mediterranean Network of Forestry Research and Innovation (MENFRI) would like to become a dialogue and action platform in forestry, encouraging scientific and technological collaboration within the Mediterranean. The main goal of the project is therefore to create a favourable environment for the development of an innovative and job creating business sector in this region while facing climate change. The project will help bridging the gap between research and innovation by improving performance in managing, transferring and using the knowledge resulting from ecological research and forest management and by better aligning both research and economic objectives to societal needs."