Mediterranean Plant Biodiversity and Human Impact: Macro and Micro-Regional Approaches

Man’s role appears to be central in the future of the Mediterranean environment, because his impact and management choices are responsible for the persistence of this high biodiversity in the Mediterranean basin. With 10 regional hotspots and 50 plant biodiversity refuge areas, the Mediterranean region is threatened by the quickness and the severity of the current and forecasted environmental changes. More precisely, the Maritime Alps regional hotspot constitutes the most important endemic center of the whole Alps region, but it has been subjected to drastic environmental transformations for the last decades. The comparisons between the distribution of refuges and human threats exhibit similar spatial patterns, both at the Mediterranean region scale and, to a lesser extent, at the Maritime Alps hotspot. Refuge areas constitute some of the most threatened territories due to a higher than average demographic pressure. This observation which is very clear at the level of the Mediterranean basin is slightly mitigated at the lower scale, the Maritime Alps. Thus, facing the increasing threats on the Mediterranean biodiversity, it's essential to quickly undertake an integrative conservation framework at the Mediterranean scale with a prioritization toward refuge areas.