Land degradation and desertification are considered major threats for the present and future of Mediterranean arid and semiarid Agro-Ecosystems. Together with land degradation, climate change threatens the biological systems and the natural resources that sustain agriculture such as water and soil. The REACT4MED proposal consortium includes a multidisciplinary team of ten research institutes and one SME from nine countries. The project will enhance sustainable land and water management to support increased agropastoral productivity, accelerate technological innovation and adaptation, reverse land degradation and improve the livelihoods of Mediterranean communities. 

In REACT4MED we will rely on ‘living labs’ for stakeholder engagement to increase the capacity of changemakers and develop methods and tools that support participatory and scientific decision-making in a practical manner by bridging bottom–up and top–down approaches in SLWM. We aim to initiate and support large scale restoration actions with measurable impact in terms of area affected, as well as a substantial degree of environmental stewardship and social and societal improvement. T

o enable and promote public and private investment opportunities we will develop tools for the assessment of restoration potential in terms of environmental and economic cost-effectiveness. To cover the range of conditions that occur in the Mediterranean region, eight pilot areas have been selected where the REACT4MED approach will be experimented and assessed in a real world context. The results from this assessment, as well as lessons learnt from the local restoration actions will be translated to a policy roadmap for upscaling or/and outscaling. REACT4MED will use an active dissemination approach to achieve impact from the local to regional levels and will boost outreach and strengthen institutional capacity by improving access to knowledge for applied innovation in land and water management.