Résumé
Agricultural trade balances of Mediterranean countries have been in deficit for more than thirty years. This dependence on food imports was especially serious in 2008, and impacted upon the climate change threat, particularly feared in this region, continual arable land losses, natural resources degradation, institutions crises and, above all, the social fragility present in rural areas through poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, health and lack of basic services. How to reconcile population growth, food security and protection of the environment? How to deal with fossil fuels, the reduction in biodiversity and pollution within new models of agricultural production? How to distribute means and efforts so that territorial misbalances can be reduced and long-term reconstruction well prepared? How to give legitimacy to local dynamics of production systems in constrained zones and make them justifiable in public policies? How to contribute to the modernization of public actions, to involve rural populations in the participative processes, to enhance conditions of life in rural areas? These are a sample of the issues addressed in this CD Rom which includes all national and regional studies and the proceedings of the Regional Workshop on Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development in the Mediterranean held from 8 to 10 May 2008, in Bari, Italy.