Within the framework of the LIFE Red Bosques Clima project, the fourth webinar is being convened in which the focus will be on forestry for adaptation to climate change, which will take place on April 15 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The climate scenarios anticipate a near future with higher temperatures and lower precipitation, with a greater incidence of major droughts and more frequent and intense forest fires. Preserving the variety of services that forests provide us requires taking actions to improve their adaptive capacity, accompanying the process of change that will inevitably occur, to reduce risks. To do this, given the enormous extension of territory to be managed, and the diversity of existing situations, it will be necessary to use different tools, complementary to each other, and designed according to the characteristics of each place.
Among these tools, forestry will undoubtedly be one of the most important. The accumulated experience in forest management can be directed towards adaptation to climate change, in a manner compatible with production objectives, or biodiversity conservation.

One of the main alternatives for adapting Mediterranean forest landscapes to climate change is the generation of heterogeneous mosaics, composed patches of forest areas at different levels of maturity, along with open areas of shrubland or grassland. Together, these should present greater resilience to disturbances, especially large wild fires.

The diversity of possible situations and the magnitude of the challenge we face will require the use of different tools adapted to each context: forestry, conservation or restoration measures, the use of herbivores (domestic or wild), and paradoxically, the use of fire.

In some places, prescribed burns are beginning to be tested as a forest management tool aimed at increasing heterogeneity and reducing biomass. This event will discuss the effects of fire on ecosystems, its applicability as a management tool in protected areas, the opportunities it offers, and also the risks it represents.

We look forward to your participation! It’s free, and you can register here:  

On 18 April 2023, 200 participants attended the first RedBosques_Clima webinar, dedicated to the theme “Forests vulnerability to climate change”.

Jose Atauri, technical coordinator of the project, from the Fernando González Bernáldez Foundation (FUNGOBE), presented the objectives, actions and project partners. He also shared the progress on the key actions and elucidated participants on the reports and technical manuals that are already available for download.

Jordí Vayreda, from the Centre de Recerca Ecològica i Aplicacions Forestals (CREAF), in his presentation “The role of diversity and maturity in management actions for climate change adaptation”, presented the trends in recent decades about the evolution of forest biomass, as a consequence of rural abandonment, and scenarios of drought and extreme factors resulting from climate change. He proposed “close-to-nature” climate change adaptation measures, to increase climate resilience and improve conservation values.

Lluís Comas, also from CREAF, closed the round of presentations with the “Application of a drought vulnerability index to the RedBosques reference stand network”. He presented the risk / vulnerability to drought assessment, which is based on 5 main characteristics – geographical and climatic exposure, average functional susceptibility and its diversity, structural / compositional susceptibility, and lack of resilience – and the RedBosques tool for assessing drought risk at plot level.

Tuesday 18 April 2023. 10.00 to 12.00 CET

Across Europe, and particularly in the Mediterranean, forests are already facing the effects of climate change, in the form of mortality due to heat waves and intense droughts. The need to implement management actions aimed at reducing the vulnerability of forests is already on the agenda of forest managers, but experience in adapting to climate change is still limited.

Actions for forest adaptation to climate change have important synergies with biodiversity conservation: maintaining or improving the conservation status of the forest ecosystem improves its adaptive capacity. This is why the LIFE RedBosques_Clima project focuses on protected natural areas as “laboratories” to test adaptation measures based on the conservation of forests in good condition; and the restoration of the elements that confer greater adaptive capacity, by developing some practical tools for decision-making in the process of designing adaptation actions.

In this first of a series of six webinars, we review the role of forest maturity in climate change strategies and present a tool for assessing drought risk in forests.

The webinar will be held in Spanish.

PROGRAMME

10.00 – 10.30 LIFE RedBosques_Clima: natural solutions for forest adaptation to climate change. José Atauri / Technical Coordinator of LIFE RedBosques_Clima. Fernando González Bernáldez Foundation (FUNGOBE)

10.30 – 11.15 The role of diversity and maturity in the management for climate change adaptation. Jordi Vayreda / Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF)

11.15 – 11.45 Application of a drought vulnerability index to the RedBosques reference stand network. Lluís Comas / Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF)

11.45 – 12.00 Debate with the audience. Moderator: José Atauri / Technical Coordinator of LIFE RedBosques_Clima. FUNGOBE

REGISTRATION

The webinar will be broadcasted by ZOOM, capacity limited to 100 registrations. Registration at the following link: https://webinarioredbosquesclima.gr8.com/

Those registered will receive an email with the access link to ZOOM.

SPEAKERS

José Antonio Atauri Mezquida. PhD in Ecology from the Autonomous University of Madrid, José is the coordinator of conservation projects and planning of protected areas at the Fernando González Bernáldez Foundation. He is currently the technical coordinator of the LIFE RedBosques_Clima project.

Jordi Vayreda Durán. PhD in Terrestrial Ecology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, has been a researcher at CREAF since 1991. His research focuses on the impacts of disturbances and global change on the decline, mortality, vulnerability and resilience of forests, ecosystem services and biodiversity. Another line of research focuses on the characterisation of the conservation status of forest ecosystems, their degree of maturity and naturalness.

Lluís Comas Boronat. A biologist and GIS and database specialist, Lluís works as research technician at CREAF in forest ecology and biodiversity issues. He currently focuses his participation on projects to monitor, evaluate and improve the conservation status of habitats and communities of organisms in order to face the challenges of global change.