In the current context of the climate crisis, forests are of strategic value because of their role in mitigating climate change by capturing and accumulating carbon from the atmosphere.
In the current context of the climate crisis, forests are a strategic ally, due to their role in mitigating the effects of climate change, by capturing and storing carbon from the atmosphere.
However, to ensure their long term role, it is necessary to foresee the changes that forests will undergo in new climate scenarios, and define new management approaches that will be necessary to maintain their continuity over time.
It is undoubtedly necessary to protect the last relicts of old-growth forests, which was the main focus of the previous LIFE RedBosques project. Nonetheless, if we look at the landscape as a whole, the vast majority of forest cover in Spain is either a result of reforestation actions for productivity or young forests resulting from rural abandonment. These forest stands require an intervention aimed at promoting their capacity to adapt to the new climate. The project will test and try out some of those measures in different regions and habitats, to ensure that the ecosystem services that forests provide to society, including climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation, are not lost.