Olive Groves and Landscapes in the Mediterranean: Looking into the Future – Challenges, Opportunities, and Scenarios for More Sustainable Olive Landscapes Delivering Multiple Functions and Services

We opened this book by arguing for the urgent need for deeper and more creative reflections about the sustainability of olive landscapes in the Mediterranean (Chap. 1 ). As has been thoroughly demonstrated throughout this book, olive grove landscapes are farming system that have strongly shaped the landscapes of the Mediterranean over the long and rich tract of human history in the region. Furthermore, we also anticipated the multiplicity of challenges, but also of opportunities, that are linked to this complex and rich landscape, which in itself is a cultural, economic and environmental asset for rural and urban territories across the region, and beyond. The heterogeneity of contingent situations shaping such opportunities and challenges is directly apparent in the chapter structure of this book. Thus, the reader who has followed our indications and suggestions in the initial chapter on how to approach the reading of this manual will undoubtedly have already become aware of the richness and heterogeneity of challenges and opportunities arising. Hopefully, this same reader will have learnt something new in the way, or at least challenged some preconceptions. This has certainly been our case, as book editors.