Integrating landscape ecology in the conservation of Mediterranean ecosystems: The Israeli experience

Abstract

There is at present enough ecological understanding of Mediterranean ecosystems to provide legitimacy for active management and intervention in these environments. One of the principal threats to biodiversity in Mediterranean environments is posed by the successional processes that turn the landscape into a dense, close stand of woody vegetation, prone to burning. Active management aimed to control the closing up process is required; it should be considered at several levelsspecies, populations, communities, and ecosystemsand should be applied according to well-defined management/conservation goals. Biodiversity, especially in the animal populations and the herbaceous community, is an expression of the landscape structure, which, in turn, is modulated principally by the woody vegetation. Therefore, a management scheme based on multiscale functional patchiness is required. Scientists, especially landscape ecologists, should provide the required information on the relations between the woody formation and biodiversity and should participate in the management decision-making process.

Keywords:

• active management
• nature conservation
• biodiversity
• traditional land-use