resources and fight against land degradation). Despite their appar- ent fragility, Mediterranean forest landscapes have been shaped by human activities and have demonstrated for several centuries their strong resilience to changes of anthropogenic origins. How- ever, today they are facing a threat of unprecedented magnitude dominated by climate change and the increase in population that they will have to adapt to in the coming decades. More than a third of the economic value of Mediterranean forests is linked to the pro- duction of wood forest products followed by recreation services, watershed regulation, grazing by cattle and the production of non- wood forest products altogether accounting in similar proportions for half of the remaining economic value (FAO/FD 2011).

Mining and manufacturing The lack of major iron and, especially, coal reserves within the Mediterranean Basin influenced the industrial development path of the countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. Steel production has been concentrated in the north (Italy, France, Spain, Turkey and Greece), with a few producers in the south (Egypt, Algeria and Tunisia). Other mining activity in the Medi- terranean has focused on mercury (Spain), phosphates (Mo- rocco, and Tunisia), chromite (Albania and Turkey), lead, salt, bauxite (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, France, Greece, Slo- venia and Montenegro) and zinc (Spain and Morocco) (EEA and UNEP 1999).

INTRODUCTION TO THE MEDITERRANEAN BASIN

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