Mediterranean agriculture and the environment

This paper takes as starting point the idea that the relation between agriculture and environment is a unitary one, and goes on to attempt reconstruction of a synthetic scheme characterizing the principal risks and priorities of intervention that are common to all the countries of the area. In this attempt, the agricultures of the European side are analysed together with those of the Asian and North-African sides. The relationship between agricultural activities and the Mediterranean environment is principally characterized by means of an analysis of its structural connections, and then searching in the few available data for some simple clues which would support the proposed scheme of interpretation. The analysis also shows that there will probably be two different evolutionary paths, one for the northern side, another for the eastern and southern sides of the basin, each dependent on the social and economic context of the areas.