Assessing the resilience of the Mediterranean forest and acting accordingly, focus of a course by CREAF and CIHEAM Zaragoza

Episodes of drought, fires and plagues as a result of climate change are a threat to the Mediterranean climate forest, which is added to centuries-old human action, linked to socio-economic activity and leisure. In this context it is increasingly critical to promote the concept of forest resilience, understood as the ability to assimilate disturbances and pressures and to adapt, maintaining its essential functions. In the case of the territories of Mediterranean climate -linked to a closed sea, which warms 20% faster than the rest of the world's marine waters-, resilience becomes an essential concept and is the focus of the international course 'Management strategies to improve the resilience of Mediterranean forests', that CREAF co organizes together with CIHEAM Zaragoza in April 2024, in collaboration with EFIMed.

CREAF assumes the scientific coordination of the international course, aimed at people with political responsibility, public administration specialists, research professionals and NGOs.

CREAF assumes the scientific coordination and has contributed to defining the content and scope of the training proposal, which combines theoretical and practical sessions, real cases and a technical field visit to publicize a real case of forest management on the ground. The intention is to provide the most realistic vision to the participants, so that they acquire practical tools and update knowledge and skills that will allow them to assess the resilience of the Mediterranean forest and be able to act accordingly.

The course is aimed at people with political responsibility in environmental aspects, public or private research professionals, public administration specialists and NGO teams involved in planning and managing forest ecosystems in territories with a Mediterranean climate.

BOKU Austria, EFI, INRAE and Universidade de Lisboa are some of the centers participating in the faculty panel.

The teaching staff is made up of scientists from BOKU Austria (Eugenio Díaz-Pines), Centre de la Propietat Forestal (Teresa Cervera), Centre de Ciència i Tecnologia Forestal de Catalunya (Míriam Piqué), CREAF (Josep M. Espelta),EFIMed (Magda Bou Dagher Kharrat), INRAE Avignon (François Lefèvre), Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (Jesús J. Camarero), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona i CREAF (Francisco Lloret), Universitat de Barcelona (Beatriz Duguy) and the University off Lisbon (Manuela Branco and Francisco Rego).