Olive Groves (and Olive Oil) in the Mediterranean in 2023: A Heterogeneous and Dynamic Mosaic of Rural Landscapes and Ecosystems

Domesticated olive groves have been documented to be present in the Mediterranean basin for the past 8.00–6.000 years. Pollen and DNA records show how the wild olive or oleaster has persisted throughout the Holocene across the entire Mediterranean, expanding and retracting across Southern Europe, Northern Africa, and the Middle East in response to climate fluctuations and socio-political turns (Besnard et al., 2013; Breton et al., 2012). In this opening chapter, the reader will be introduced to the main stages and tipping points identified for the historical trajectories of olive groves and olive oil production across the Mediterranean, resulting in the complex olive landscape mosaic that we encounter today. Furthermore, the reader will also find hereby an introduction to the diverse social-ecological challenges they face in the era of sustainability, all of which are addressed along the book. Ultimately, we intend to provoque the reader to read the book, in whichever sequence and mode they may find best suited to their own interests and mood, and then question themselves; what do I know now about olive landscapes and their sustainabilty that I didn’t know before?, and what else do I still not know nor understand that is relevant?. Whether you are an academic, practitioner, whether you are working in the public or private spheres, or just as some lay person with curiosity about the topics addressed in the book, we expect that you will follow us in the complex, even wicked, and yet nonetheless exciting quest for securing the sustainability of these ancient and yet highly innovative, valuable and yet largely threatened, most Mediterranean of all Mediterranean landscapes.