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<p>Land degradation and desertification are considered major threats for the present and future of Mediterranean arid and semiarid agro-ecosystems (Daliakopoulos et al., 2017). Long-term anthropogenic pressure on forest and agricultural lands, combined with abiotic factors and the global trend of accelerated dryer climate and dryland expansion, create an uncertain and unstable living environment which has been demonstrated to increase poverty and force domestic and even cross-border migration. While our understanding and the flow of information about these threats is unprecedented, challenges persist and uptake of good practices by stakeholders is hindered by constraints and barriers both biophysical and socioeconomic (Daliakopoulos, 2022). For example, in one of the pioneer institutional initiatives aiming to enhance long-term forest resources and combat soil erosion and desertification by promoting forestry as an alternative form of land use, the Agricultural Land Afforestation (ALA) Program (Regulation 2080/92) introduced compensations for the income loss incurred during the non-productive period of afforested agricultural land. However, awareness about the Program by landowners, and the overall effectiveness of afforestation both in forestation success and in reducing soil erosion remains uncertain (Arabatzis et al., 2006; Nunes et al., 2011). In this context, the premise of the REACT4MED Project is that massive and effective land restoration actions need not only to make sense from an environmental point of view, but to also be socially acceptable, economically viable (Daliakopoulos & Keesstra, 2020), and have measurable impact, thus combining good practices with organic and inclusive transformation of all social actors. Here we present an overview of the effectiveness of the former ALA in the REACT4MED Pilot Area of Heraklion and outlines the supporting actions, both top down and bottom up, planned during the REACT4MED Project to increase the effectiveness of the forthcoming ALA Program by combining good practices with organic and inclusive transformation of all social actors.</p><p><strong>References</strong></p><p>Arabatzis, G., Christopoulou, O., & Soutsas, K. (2006). The EEC Regulation 2080/92 about forest measures in agriculture. <em>International Journal of Ecodynamics</em>, <em>1</em>(3), 245–257. https://doi.org/10.2495/ECO-V1-N3-245-257</p><p>Daliakopoulos, I. N. (2022). Sustainable Soil and Water Management for Combating Land Degradation and Desertification and Promoting Mediterranean Ecosystem Restoration: The REACT4MED Concept. <em>Third World Conference on the Revitalization of the Mediterranean Diet</em>, 28.</p><p>Daliakopoulos, I. N., & Keesstra, S. (2020). TERRAenVISION: Science for Society. Environmental issues today. <em>Science of the Total Environment</em>, <em>704</em>. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.135238</p><p>Daliakopoulos, I. N., Panagea, I. S., Tsanis, I. K., Grillakis, M. G., Koutroulis, A. G., Hessel, R., Mayor, A. G., & Ritsema, C. J. (2017). Yield Response of Mediterranean Rangelands under a Changing Climate. <em>Land Degradation & Development</em>. https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.2717</p><p>Nunes, A. N., de Almeida, A. C., & Coelho, C. O. A. (2011). Impacts of land use and cover type on runoff and soil erosion in a marginal area of Portugal. <em>Applied Geography</em>, <em>31</em>(2), 687–699. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.APGEOG.2010.12.006</p><p><strong>Acknowledgements</strong></p><p>This work has received funding from REACT4MED: Inclusive Outscaling of Agro-Ecosystem Restoration Actions for the Mediterranean. The REACT4MED Project (grant agreement 2122) is funded by PRIMA, a program supported by Horizon 2020.</p>

Background Road injury is the leading cause of death for young people aged 5-29 years worldwide. As the human factor has been shown to be responsible for more than 3/4 of road incidents, changing safety attitudes and driving behaviours among youth is crucial to combat this public health issue. The current study is part of a project implemented by the Laboratory of Health and Road Safety (LaHeRS), in collaboration with the Lead Authorities of Primary and Secondary Education of Crete and with the financial support of the Region of Crete. The project started in 2019 and aims at promoting a road safety culture among school teachers of primary and secondary education in Crete Region through improving their competence in designing and implementing road safety education in class. Methods The program consists of three phases: a) 20 hours face-to-face training (e.g. needs assessment techniques, teaching approaches and techniques addressing risky driving, evaluation methods, practical training using the advanced technology of the driving simulator of LaHeRS Lab <<Virage VS500M >> etc), b) 30 hours distant learning using an online training program and appropriately designed training handbooks to support personalized training and, c) small-scale pilot projects of road safety education in classrooms, upon the scientific guidance and supervision of the LaHeRS research staff. For the purposes of the evaluation a questionnaire was completed to detect changes in teachers' competence to design and implement road safety education as well as their knowledge and attitudes (e.g. DSI, DBQ questionnaires) towards road safety. Results A total of 160 teachers participated in the 2019-2020 training programme, including 129 women, 109 primary and 51 secondary education teachers with a mean age of 43.4 years and a mean teaching experience of 16.5 years. The programme met high acceptability and raised significant teachers' confidence in delivering road safety education. Key messages The project proved to be efficient in addressing the pedagogical gaps in road safety education. Road safety education should be part of health promotion initiatives targeting children and adolescents.

Drought and salinity are two of the most urgent challenges faced in Mediterranean ecosystems, equally impacting natural systems, agricultural crops, and urban green. While many technical and soft approaches have been proposed to anticipate, mitigate, and remediate these impacts, a class of solutions has possibly been in front of us all along. Native Mediterranean fauna is well adapted, and when properly established still has unexploited conservation, restoration, and production diversification potential. Here, we outline the results of a long-term experiment taking place on the island of Crete, Greece that started in 1996 and involves over 70 native Mediterranean plants planted and monitored in various green spaces (private, shared, public) and a university campus under a diversity of adverse topographies (e.g., coastal, steep slopes), soils (e.g., disturbed, nutrient-deficient), and microclimatic conditions, taking various plant formations and serving various functions. After plant establishment, drought and salinity resistance were evaluated by gradually exposing plants (n = 5249) to deficit irrigation and saline environmental conditions, and plants were followed up for at least 5 years to empirically assess their ability to cope with abiotic stress. From the Mediterranean plants that were planted and tested, 52 were singled out because of their resistance and additional favorable traits. Motivated by this long-term assessment, a systematic literature review was conducted using the protocol Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) to validate empirical results, determine which were still unexplored, and bring to light additional uses. Results showed that 41 of the plants included in this research have significant medicinal properties, 26 have nutritional uses, 17 industrial uses, and 18 have evidence of cosmetology uses. Additionally, the empirical assessment gave new evidence of at least 40 new species–trait combinations. By formally documenting the characteristics of these native Mediterranean plants, this work highlights their versatile traits, and the prospect of creating new uses and value chains enables, for the first time their inclusion in planting-decision support systems and aims to increase demand and facilitate the scaling up of native greening in the context of sustainable land and water management within and beyond the Mediterranean basin.