It is widely recognized that during the last two centuries at least, a high proportion of Mediterranean wetlands have been drained and converted to land-uses of immediate human interest. However, the long history of external forces impacting on wetlands such as commercial production model and agro-business market forces, top-down decisions on land use, wars, crisis, federation of states and globalization could not entirely remove the social attachment of the people to their territories, cultural identity, local practice and social setting. It is in fact the opposite, as several examples show that democratic federations of states and globalization can help revive local identities and specificities. While rural communities often perpetuate social and cultural values from generation to generation, an important part of urban communities remains attracted by Nature.
This social attachment to territories, ensuring a certain degree of local protection, is often ignored for various reasons. This may be because it is not written, because it is sometimes empirical, or because it is only recognized by the locals and often under-estimated by the policy-makers and the stakeholders who “import” their own development and conservation approaches.
Nevertheless, in many countries, some wetlands are still protected in an informal way and have long been maintained and managed by local communities. This is even the case in countries with a high demographic pressure like Egypt, Jordan or Israel. The consensus is usually linked to a historical recognition by the community of the value of wetlands for water storage, micro-climate stabilization, food provision, flood regulation, support for cultural or solidarity events, etc. In future initiatives for wetlands, it will be important to better recognize and to take into account these indigenous protection mechanisms and the positive practices that have helped the wetlands survive up to now. Otherwise, the disappearance of these mechanisms and practices through ignorance and social network degradation may be irreversible for future indigenous protection initiatives.