Kangaroo paws (Anigozanthos rufus). Photo by Peggy Fiedler
ISOMED is an international professional society established to promote research, conservation, and public awareness of the biological diversity of the world’s Mediterranean-climate regions.
ISOMED was established in 1971 to organize a regular series of conferences on Mediterranean-climate region issues. Now known as MEDECOS conferences, the meetings are still convened on a regular basis in the five Mediterranean-climate regions.
ISOMED is a legal body headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal. It is supported by an executive committee and audit board.
Objectives
- To promote and improve communication and cooperation among investigators, educations, environmental managers, and human communities in the five Mediterranean-climate regions of the world.
- To promote an awareness of the global significance of Mediterranean-climate regions, their biodiversity, and their conservation within the scientific community, resource managers, and the general public.
- To promote research in all aspects of the ecology and conservation of Mediterranean-climate regions.
- To encourage the preservation of biodiversity in Mediterranean-climate regions and to safeguard it for posterity for its intrinsic worth and its aesthetic and tangible values to humanity.
- To promote education in the ecology and conservation of Mediterranean-climate regions.
- To provide expert knowledge to government and non-government agencies and organizations whose administrative decisions affect Mediterranean-climate habitats and their biota.
- To encourage the establishment, improvement, maintenance and accessibility of physical facilities, databases, and collections of biological materials for the study of Mediterranean-climate and their conservation.
Spring wildflowers in California. Image credit: Catherine E. Kohler
International Advisory Committee
| Kingsley Dixon | Australia |
| Grant Wardell–Johnson | Australia |
| Pablo Marquet | Chile |
| Margarita Arianoutsou | Greece |
| Costas A. Thanos | Greece |
| Vanda Acacio | Portugal |
| Miguel Bugalho | Portugal |
| Francisco Moreira | Portugal |
| Francisco Castro Rego | Portugal |
| Karen Esler | South Africa |
| Dave Olson | United States |
| Felicia Federico | United States |
| Phil Rundel | United States |