REWILD MEDITERRANEAN
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
REWILD MEDITERRANEAN is a project dedicated to tackle the devastating consequences of climate catastrophe in the Mediterranean zone by boosting transnational collaboration to rewild watery and terrestrial ecosystems. The aim of this project is to verify that Mediterannean area will remain an abudant and safe zone for existing and future generations by allowing civil society actors to envision, plan and work together not only to preserve, but to create anew healthy ecosystems.
Geographical Scope
Project Region
Urban or rural issues
Physical or other transformations
EU Programme or fund
Which funds
Description of the project
Summary
Mediterranean Sea and their terrestrial parts are a home full of diverse interspiece co-existence. Under the threats of climate change and the consequences of heavy industries, this home is prolonged to fast degradation, putting in danger humans and non humans alike. To tackle this existential threat, large scale interventions are needed to bring back the endangered wilderness. “Rewild Mediterranean” is a project dedicated to the transnational collaboration of communities, organizations, institutions and other actors of civil society to create together tangible plans that not only preserve, but create anew abundant watery and terrestrial ecosystems in the Mediterranean, in order to secure the zone as a safe space for present and future generations.
The project’s aim is to engage various actors from the civil society around the Mediterranean to envision, design and create low- cost and nature based solutions to rewild Mediterranean habitats. Through transnational encounters and collective imagination, actors from various communities will explore the opportunities to co-design possible futures with intense climate action and ecosystem restoration. REWILD MEDITERRANEAN in the role of conviener secures these visions to be transformed into tangible plans and concrete working proposals, keep the civil society actors engaged and assure the implementation of the co-designed proposals, turning the dreams of abundance into reality.
Key objectives for sustainability
REWILD MEDITERANEAN aims to co-design with civil society tangible plans for large scale restoration in the zone of the Mediterranean sea. The zone is endangered with rapid degradation due to climate change, turning this majestic place into a hostile environment. This future can be reversed only by constant and committed actions that preserve the existing and redesigning new ecosystems in earth and under water alike. The rewilding process (rewild: create the right circumstances for wild flora and fauna to return in degraded places) is exemplary in the context of sustainability due to the commitment to overcome the mere notions of sustaining and move to the notions of regenerating, making kin and empower a thriving natural world.
The key objectives of this program can be met by fostering the connectivity and interaction with civil society along the Mediterranean sea (local organizations, communities, institutes, activist groups etc) to envision and design together tangible plans in a transnational scale. For their achievement, the program supports the transformation of ideas into realistic plans, securing the access to adequate funds and constant motivation of participating actors.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
Rewilding is the most precious, necessary and admiring form of art. Beyond the functionality of planetary ecosystems, the aesthetics of a forest, a coral reef, a vibrant ecosystem where multiple species including human co- exist is undeniably a high aesthetic experience. REWILD MEDITERRANEAN works as a platform to bring together various actors in order to envision and give birth to new ecosystems while tackling climate change effects and verifies that all participants onboard will have space to brainstorm, express, connect, and feel empowered to implement their advocacy, ideas and visions. A new, vibrant space for imagination, will power and action for a better future this project aims to achieve is highly- promising to shift the notions of aesthetics and experience towards a proactive and empowered lifestyle.
Key objectives for inclusion
In REWILD MEDITERANNEAN the engagement of civil society from the Mediterranean zone to envision and work together in order to create and materialize their vision is at its core. This project aims to acknowledge the native wisdom of local actors and center them as the main indicators of change. Civic society in this project is the acting individual, allowing their voices and visions, ideas and abilities to be expressed, heard, held and transformed into tangible action plans. The connectivity and collaboration with other actors around Mediterranean to get inspired and design together forms a unique experience of meaningful collaboration for a common goal; to verify a viable future for existing and future generations. Mediterranean civil society -local actors, communities, citizens initiatives, institutions, activists, existing eco-projects etc- are in this program the designers and actors to make the vision of a rewilded and vibrant Mediterranean zone a viable reality, having equal opportunities to be heard.
Results in relation to category
This project is falling to the category connection with nature and is aspired to achieve a bold new vision for the future of the Mediterranean zone -one of thriving ecosystems- created and shared by civil society, as well as the connections, plan-making, designs and tools to materialize this vision. REWILD MEDITERANEAN project impacts on connection with nature moves to the sphere of connect with the infinite possibilities of change the natural world has, where a mere desert can be transformed into an abundant forest. This project aims to strength the certainty that a future of thriving ecosystems can and should be achieved and provoke the action necessary towards the direction of regeneration.
How Citizens benefit
REWILD MEDITERRANEAN considers citizens and civil society the main pillars of this project. Through an already existing network of activists and organizations/ institution in environmental and climate action I have access to due to my past as a former regional liaison of Extinction Rebellion Global Support (South Europe) and my involvement with eco-projects around the Mediterranean sea, with this project I intent to bring these people together in online spaces. In these meetings, the actors of change in their localities will be able to brainstorm and create together visions and designs to rewild the Mediterranean zone. Citizens and civil society seem to hold a profound wisdom for the special needs and abilities of their places, a wisdom commonly lost in top- down attempts of reforestation. Their involvement in rewilding their areas in collaboration with other partners of other nations, holding the same vision and desire for a viable future will be beneficial for the participants in terms of exploring new possibilities, create alliances and, on top, contribute with new ecosystems that will minimize catastrophic climate events.
Physical or other transformations
Innovative character
REWILD MEDITERRANEAN project comes as a proposal due to the lack of a similar project. Mediterranean is a unique place, with specific characteristics in terms of climate, species, even culture and faces similar dangers due to climate change. An alliance of the existing organizations and civil society to engage in multi scalar projects of regeneration in order to rapidly tackle the catastrophic consequences of climate collapse in the coming decade is loudly absent. This project, realizing the importance of a work like that and their potentiality to shift catastrophe in an opportunity of collaboration and massive restoration, is innovative as it is unique; there is literally no other project, institute or organization solely focused in the restoration and rewilding of Mediterranean zone.
Learning transferred to other parties
REWILD MEDITERRANEAN is a step-by-step building of coalition with interested parties around Mediterranean sea to design multi scalar rewilding projects in terrestrial and watery territories of the Mediterranean zone. The documentation comes from transforming the ideas arising from the encounters with interested members into clear and sharp project proposals. The methodology of the project takes place in three different steps. The first phase, ENVISION, is a round table of interested members to brainstorm, bring together ideas and visions and meet potential collaborators who share the same goals and practices to create together a new vision for Mediterranean ecosystems. The material coming from the first phase will be documented and shared with participants in shared, co-working folders, available online. The second phase, DESIGN, is the process of connecting the dots and transform these ideas into tangible design plans. This step, as a work-in-progress, will be shaped into a shared proposal open to public and to higher institutions such as the EU and other national entities. The third phase, IMPLEMENTATION, is an intense mobilization of resources and funds to implement these ideas and turn them into reality. Transparency, fair distribution of surplus and common interest are the principles in which this project is moving.
