ABOUT US

“Sustainable Approaches to LAnd and water Management in MEditerranean Drylands” is a RIA project funded under the PRIMA 2021 program section 1. The project started in April 2022 and will have a duration of 3 years. SALAM-MED builds upon an interdisciplinary network of research organisations, NGOs, SMEs and international organizations, with long-standing collaborative activities across the MED. The consortium is led by the Desertification Research Center of the University of Sassari and is composed of a multidisciplinary team of 15 partners from 8 MED countries. The analytical framework informing the SALAM-MED research pathway is based on four pillars sustaining a systemic and transdisciplinary research practice: - The Living approach in six living labs located in ‘hotspots’ for land degradation across the MED - Co-researching and improvement of established new technologies for sustainable land and water management - Exploring, identifying and testing sustainable business opportunities - Disseminating and scaling out of SALAM-MED’s practical solutions

For more information please visit full project website

Period of Implementation
Apr 1, 2022 - Nov 30, 2025
Total Budget
EUR 2,835,714.04

Project team

Partners

Donors

OUR IMPACT

Objectives

SALAM-MED aims to: 1. Identify, test and validate tailored, nature-based practical solutions to enhance the resilience of endangered MED dryland socio-ecological systems or to restore degraded ecosystems in arid and hyper-arid lands. 2. Improve the capacity and support decision-makers in the identification of practical solutions for sustainable land and water management in relevant rural districts of MED drylands. 3. Actively engage all relevant stakeholders (particularly women and youth) in the Living Lab processes for the co-creation of knowledge and testing of solutions. 4. Generate new investment and business opportunities for sustainable land and water management.

Problems and Needs Analysis

Land degradation and desertification in dryland Mediterranean socio-ecological systems are the outcomes of the structural coupling of ecological and socio-economic processes, in areas where increasing climatic pressures are combined with weak adaptive capacity. SALAM-MED underlying hypotheses are that: 1. An integrated approach is needed to restore degraded land and enhance resilience in endangered dryland socio-ecological systems 2. Combining top-down ecosystem assessments with bottom-up capacity processes based on social learning, we can generate opportunities for local communities, women and youth 3. The MED area is a mosaic of a wide range of different contexts: tailored solutions needed to boost sustainable development and prevent environmental conflicts

Intervention Strategy(ies)

SALAM-MED will identify, test and validate nature-based practical solutions to enhance the resilience of endangered MED dryland socio-ecological systems or to restore degraded ecosystems in arid and hyper-arid lands: 1. Adaptive Vegetation Management 2. Integrated Olive Orchard Management 3. Innovative technologies to improve grazing management and preserve ecosystem services in degraded grazed areas in MED agroforestry 4. Water Harvesting & Subsurface Water Retention Technology 5. Microbial Consortia for improved Dryland Productivity 6. Managed Aquifer Recharge 7. Wadi basin Water Harvesting

WHERE WE WORK

NEWS & EVENTS