Through this project freshwater KBAs have now been identified, mapped and validated throughout much of the Mediterranean Hotspot.
It is now important to raise awareness of their status as validated freshwater KBAs and to develop plans for appropriate conservation actions at these sites.
One hundred and eighty-eight potential Site Champions have been identified by stakeholders as individuals/organizations best placed to raise awareness of the existence of the KBAs and the issues faced with respect to threats to biodiversity,
and to help implement the required actions to safeguard these globally important sites.
Specific recommendations for conservation actions are mainly focused on improving management of the hydrology of these KBAs, many of which are currently or potentially impacted by over-abstraction and diversion of water,
construction of dams, and drought. KBAs need to be managed to ensure Environmental Flows are sufficient to support these fragile freshwater ecosystems and they should be implemented as part of catchment-wide Integrated River Basin Management planning which takes account of the
wide range of uses of water across all sectors. There are also important knowledge gaps in site and basin-specific species distributions of many threatened species, and many countries do not yet have baseline inventories of their inland water ecosystems and species assemblages. It is very possible that many new KBAs will be discovered if these biodiversity inventories progress.
In conclusion, the Mediterranean Basin Hotspot is found to be globally important for its freshwater biodiversity. This biodiversity is highly threatened largely due to the conflicting demands upon a diminishing supply of fresh water which is further exacerbated by the increased severity of drought across the region. Unless the recommendations given above are followed and Site Champions are mobilized to raise awareness of these globally important freshwater KBAs, species will almost certainly be lost in the very near future.
Solutions are available but the willingness to adopt them has to be encouraged. Freshwater species are most often out of sight and out of mind so raising awareness of their presence, the threats they face, and the necessary conservation actions are fundamental to the persistence of freshwater biodiversity in the Mediterranean Hotspot.
Download the full Mediterranean Basin Hotspot KBA report HERE
