PRESENTATION :
The Mediterranean basin has extraordinary richness in biodiversity combined with high endemism and represents one of the 34 biodiversity hotspots on the planet.. But this area has also been subject to a historically very significant human impact. It is one of the world's biogeographical regions that is most vulnerable to climate change. Maintenance of herpetological diversity in these changing environments represents a serious challenge to conservation biologists and policymakers for natural areas..
The Mediterranean Congress of Herpetology is an international scientific meeting whose theme is «Conservation of the Mediterranean Herpetofauna in a changing environment". In 2007, during the CMH1, we proposed that this congress be held every 4 years. The second edition is planned for May 2011 in Marrakesh, Morocco. The CMH is bilingual (French and English) and will include plenary conferences, oral communications, posters and roundtables and/or workshops.
The main objective of this second Mediterranean Congress of Herpetology "MCH2" is to consider how to resolve the apparent dilemma of maintaining optimal biodiversity that is expected to be more vulnerable and show greater fluctuations in space and time. Ten years after the strategic plan was adopted in 2002 by signatories of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), in which the objective was set "to ensure by 2010, International Year of Biodiversity, a sharp reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss at global, national and regional levels", and four years after the Marrakesh call for protection of Herpetological biodiversity in the Mediterranean basin and particularly in North Africa, there is a feeling of disappointment at the present time. An update of the conservation status of the Mediterranean herpetofauna is required, focusing on progress but also on knowledge-gaps. The emergence and development of new disciplines (conservation genetics, phylogeography, ecological modeling) have led to conceptual advances and practices that should be incorporated into conservation-related work and assessment of Mediterranean biodiversity. The combination of syntheses and innovative empirical projects should help to develop new opportunities and therefore provide tangible elements to help frame the conservation of herpetofauna in Mediterranean environments within the ongoing Global Strategy for Conservation of biodiversity for the period 2011-2020, which should be adopted in the conference in Nagoya.
Objectives: