Inventory Plots

In May 2024, the project design for implementing actions in the Pinus uncinata reforestation area (Phase 02) was completed, and administrative processing for its award has begun.

Slope of Cerro del Aventadero. Canton 16

At this time, all planned work, both in the Pinus sylvestris reforestation areas (Phase 01) and Pinus uncinata reforestation areas (Phase 02), has been assigned to a local company with extensive experience in forest exploitation and silvicultural operations in the region. This company is technically equipped to work in areas of very difficult access and conditions.

Work is scheduled to begin this July, taking advantage of the summer period when access conditions are most suitable in these areas, which reach 2,000 meters above sea level and have very steep slopes.

Aerial view of the area where the demonstrative forestry actions are planned to be carried out, taken during the preparation of the executive project.

The pilot actions in Els Ports Nature Park aim to create a climate-resilient forest landscape. They are divided into three sub-actions:

• Informative process to involve a broad group of landowners in the project (C3.1, completed in 2022)
• Drafting of forest planning tools for the nine participating estates (four public estates and five private estates). The Forest Management Instruments, developed in coordination with all the landowners, address forest planning at the landscape scale, covering a total of 5,474 hectares. (C3.2, completed in 2023)
• Implementation of demonstrative actions. The drafting of the executive project for the demonstrative silvicultural actions, aimed at improving forest maturity attributes and restoring open spaces for biodiversity, has been completed. Once authorized by the forest service, we will begin the process of tendering the works, scheduled for late 2024 (C3.3, ongoing).

Currently, technical assistance is being processed to support the Park staff in coordinating the approval process of the drafted Forest Management Instruments and to form a working group of technicians and landowners to promote, in the long term, the deployment and creation of the climate-resilient forest landscape.

Field visit during the preparation of the Forest Management Instruments together with owners, ranchers, technical editors and technicians of the Els Ports Natural Park.

The ESPARC 2024 Congress, organised by the Junta de Castilla-La Mancha and EUROPARC-Spain under the theme “Territories of Life,” brought together more than 170 professionals.

On June 11 and 12, Alto Tajo Nature Park hosted a technical visit of the LIFE RedBosques_Clima. It was an opportunity to revisit the available tools to enhance the forests’ capacity to adapt to climate change from the perspective of ecosystem-based adaptation. The potential for public-private collaboration was also one of the topics discussed.

During the tour, participants were able to observe firsthand the restoration of key ecological processes (such as river connectivity and necrophagy restoration), the preservation of mature stands, alternative community-based forest useinvolving several municipalities, and the restoration of herbivory through wild ungulates in areas where extensive grazing has disappeared. These topics were also discussed in the third webinar of the RedBosques_Clima project.

The event targeted administrative officials responsible for forest management and protected areas planning, with the ability to replicate the visited initiatives in other regions. Attendees included officials from Aragón, Catalonia, the Valencian Community, and Castilla-La Mancha, who are involved in developing work lines related to the content of the visit.

Additionally, it is a communication tool, intended to facilitate an organized discussion on aspects of climate change vulnerability and different management alternatives with landowners and other stakeholders involved in forest conservation and management.

The Adaptometer can be downloaded at HERE.

CREAF, the technological partner of the project, has developed an online application for assessing drought risk in a forest at the stand level. Users can compare the results with the risk in plots from the National Forest Inventory (representing the “average” forest) or the Reference Stand Network (consisting only of mature stands). The tool applies a quantitative index based on indicators of the structure and functioning of the forest developed in this project. The tool includes instructions for obtaining indicators from sample plots.

The tool calculates the drought risk index for any forest habitat at the stand level based on a set of indicators obtained from simple field sampling with plots, enabling forest managers, technicians, or owners to make decisions on forest management to reduce drought vulnerability.

Upon registration via email, the tool allows users to:

• Enter field information for plots in a specific stand and instantly obtain a PDF profile with the risk value and its two components: exposure and vulnerability to drought. The profile also displays the value of all indicators for assessing risk and compares them with plots from the third National Forest Inventory (IFN3).
• Graphically compares, from different perspectives, the risk values and their components for a stand in a specific habitat with all plots from IFN3, or a subset, and with the RedBosques reference stand network.

View on a map the drought risk value or its two components for stands entered by various users, the reference stands of RedBosques, and the plots of IFN3. Data can be filtered and visualised on the map by habitat.