Thursday, setember 28, 2023
10.00 – 12.30
Most of our forest landscapes – as a result of a combination of centuries of intensive use and recent abandonment – are characterised by being very homogeneous, low on species and age diversity, without clearings and discontinuities. These characteristics makes them highly vulnerable to climate change, especially to major wildfires and droughts.
The challenge is to find a viable way to generate landscape heterogeneity in a large scale. The solution will necessarily be complex: silviculture, where it is profitable, subsidised silvicultural work where necessary, but also the simulation of disturbances through prescribed burning or recovery of lost ecological processes such as herbivory. The problem is accentuated if we consider factors of economic sustainability and the lack of human capital in many of these areas.
The use of herbivores, wild and extensive grazers, is an option that is beginning to be tested in some areas. In this webinar, we will present two complementary cases: the promotion of extensive livestock farming in an area where it had been lost and the introduction of wild herbivores in an almost totally depopulated territory. In addition, we will present the actions that are being implemented in the Parc Natural dels Ports to achieve a resilient forest landscape.
