MONIMED

Rural abandonment over recent decades, combined with climate change, makes Euro-Mediterranean forest areas highly vulnerable to climate change impacts. This situation threatens the provision of ecosystem services.

In the past, forest management in Mediterranean forests was characterized by intensity, system simplification, and a focus on a single product. Today's forests are the result of these trends, with structures highly vulnerable to drought, pests, and wildfires.

Actions

Over the last decade, several demonstrative projects have assessed the effects of forest management on the adaptive capacity of Mediterranean forests. This evaluation has particularly focused on monitoring different parameters indicative of forest growth, tree vitality, and wildfire risk prevention after conventional management with varying degrees of thinning and undergrowth clearance.

The MONIMED project aims to take this vision one step further by integrating new, more sustainable strategies aimed at preserving and enhancing the functionality and resilience of Mediterranean forests in the face of climate challenges.

Objective

The objective of MONIMED is to take a vision of adaptive management one step further from the current state by incorporating new management strategies closer to nature and including new parameters related to multifunctional management, biodiversity conservation, mitigation capacity, and the system's climate resilience.

The project encompasses monitoring ongoing pilots with conventional management (9 and 4 years of monitoring) alongside new adjacent pilots incorporating Climate-Smart Forestry practices:

1. Multifunctional integrative management.
2. Management oriented toward natural development readiness.

New parameters will be evaluated across all practices, including indicators of the forest's capacity to host biodiversity, mitigation capacity, and climate resilience.

EFI European Forest Institute (FORWARDS project - Horizon Europe)