The Olive Landscapes of the Mediterranean

This book provides a state-of-the-art review of the current models and typologies of olive landscapes and related farming systems in the Mediterranean. It also explores potential prospects for monitoring and enhancing their sustainability standards. Olive groves are an essential component of the historical landscape that largely drive the cultural, ecological and socio-economic character of the region. Agronomic intensification and mechanization, market globalization and delocalization, and financialization are affecting these ancient farming systems in certain olive landscapes, whereas others are threatened by abandonment and financial loss. This complex set of processes is resulting in a heterogeneous mosaic of olive landscapes when examined across nested spatial-temporal scales and institutional levels. In alignment with such complexity, multiple challenges are arising linked to sustainability standards and targets. Sustainability has actually been the subject of much public discussion and yet of not nearly enough scientific evidence-gathering that is both robust and comparable across geographic contexts and scales. This is where this book is expected to provide a meaningful contribution.

Ultimately, the main objective of this book is to establish a base-line sustainability picture of the complex mosaic of olive landscapes across the Mediterranean region. The book is structured along a series of national /regional and thematic reviews and syntheses, which lead to joined-up reflections on current and future challenges, opportunities and trajectories for enhancing the sustainability of olive landscapes across the Mediterranean. The book will be of interest to academics and researchers, policy-makers, the farming community, and market agents alike. We expect that they will find in this book an overall picture of the sector´s current situation and plausible pathways for achieving enhanced sustainability standards, whilst also permitting the reader to gain depth on the contingent characteristics of the different drivers, components and typologies of these dynamic and valuable landscapes.

José Muñoz-Rojas is Assistant Professor and Researcher at the Universidade de Évora (Portugal). He is a rural geographer and landscape ecologist, with a focus in unraveling the complex and non-linear trajectories of change in Mediterranean rural landscapes, and devising pathways to enhance their sustainability and resilience. He is a member of the editorial board on Landscape Ecology (Springer-Nature) and of the scientific board of the European chapter of the International Association of Landscape Ecology. He is also a small olive farmer in Alentejo (Portugal), where he lives with his family...and other animals. 

Roberto García-Ruiz is full Professor in Ecology, coordinator of the Ecology section of the University Institute of research olive groves and olive oil and Researcher at the University of Jaén (Spain). As a dedicated researcher, his work centers on evaluating the effectiveness of sustainable management practices in enhancing ecosystem services, with a particular emphasis on climate change mitigation, soil health, and the dynamics of organic carbon and nutrients.