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Abstract

Olive tree cultivation in the Mediterranean goes back to ancient times. Even since the Roman Age, olive cultivation spread to the entire Mediterranean basin. This longevous tree integrates and identifies economically, socially, and culturally the inhabitants of this basin and determines its rural landscape. For the residents of the Mediterranean, olive oil constituted the main source of nutritional fats, their most valuable export product, and was identified with their culture. Even now, olive cultivation has a multiple importance for the Mediterranean. The olive groves, which grow mostly on inclined, shallow, and low fertility soils, and on hand-made stone terraces, have limited watering requirements and sustain the fragile natural resources of the Mediterranean. Today, olive cultivation in the Mediterranean is an additional income source and supports the population in rural areas during the winter period, which profit from summer and sea tourism activity. Although an agro-ecosystem, the olive grove resembles the natural Mediterranean ecosystem and abandonment transforms them into natural Mediterranean type forests. Their change of use from olive cultivation to pasture degrades the ecosystem and decreases the natural resources, because of over-grazing. At this time, two major factors threaten the traditional olive cultivation (i) the competition of the intensive olive groves in plain and irrigated areas and (ii) the cheaper seed-oils, which intensify the abandonment of traditional olive groves and change them into pasture, resulting in the deterioration of the ecosystem. Olive cultivation has left its mark on life in the Mediterranean and has contributed to the sustainability of natural resources. Nevertheless, it succumbs under the pressure of current socioeconomic situations. Today, the conservation of olives in production constitutes a necessity for the fragile Mediterranean ecosystems and a challenge for everybody involved.

Oleotourism: Local Actors for Local Tourism Development

“…Many scholars have debated the issue of the compatibility of tourism activities and olive oil production, focusing on risks with respect to the integrity of the trees and the surrounding areas [32], in some cases leading to the incompatibility of these two activities. Other scholars stressed the opportunities that can come from the merging of these two activities, stating that tourism-oriented activities can be performed parallel to farming and can even create new benefits for the local area [12,47,48]. As concerns this second perspective, Millán Vázquez de la Torre et al [32] proposed a set of activities to be designed and implemented for oleotourism development.…”

“…The evidence underlined how seasonality can negatively affect both farming and tourism by recalling the above-mentioned issue of compatibility [47,50]. Hence, tourism and farming can be mutually beneficial, as the hospitality industry can promote the development of the olive oil industry [51][52][53].…”

Evaluating the Water Footprint of the Mediterranean and American Diets

“…Olive has been cultivated for millennia in the Mediterranean region, and has been considered by many authors a symbol of environmental sustainable systems [51][52][53]. These studies also described olive cultivation as a low-intensity production system, and usually associated with old trees, small yields, and receiving low inputs for both labor and materials [53].…”

Groundcover influence on physical and chemical soil properties, runoff and nutrient loss and grape yield and quality in semiarid Mediterranean vineyards

“…Mediterranean woody crops have been cultivated from centuries (Loumou and Giourga, 2003). As a consequence, vineyards and olive orchards are under the consideration of cultural landscapes by the United Nations, Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICOMOS, 2005; UNESCO-SCBD, 2014) because of its historical roots.…”

“…Consequently, to maximize the effectiveness of AEM management both for the environment and for the optimization of SOC input, European policies should consider many factors such as the pedoclimate, cover crop management, plant species, and the quality and quantity of cover crop biomass. These soils have been cultivated from many centuries ago (Loumou and Giourga, 2003). In Spain, woody crops were traditionally planted and tilled contrary to slopes or in terraces (Cots-Folch et al, 2006), with animal power, were tilled with animal power and organic amendments were applied every year.…”