Parallel disasters: Wars and biodiversity loss in mountain areas

Abstract

It is widely accepted that the Mediterranean Basin is a prominent hotspot of biodiversity hosting a significant richness of plant lineages and fauna.  Projected trends in the context of global change suggest this area will cope with strong increases in temperature and decreases in precipitation with consequent effects on forests and ecosystem services. Upward shifts of species range and/or mass extinction are expected to occur on a broad scale, especially in the Mediterranean.  Here, mountain ecosystems would undergo the most severe reduction and fragmentation events.  Further human based impacts aggravate the effects of global warming.  Among them, wars and civil disorders seriously affect mountain landscapes, marking them over time.Presently, many threats of war are occurring in the Mediterranean and mostly in mountain areas at a high level of biodiversity. Furthermore, these same scenarios are overlapped with global warming, thus exposing many species to an actual risk of extinction.The aim of this study was to find a solution to the disturbances created in the forest ecosystem by the consequences of war of an identified area in the Mediterranean basin.