LIFE UNCINATA

Restoration, conservation, and resilience CO2

Creaf leader

The LIFE UNCINATA project aims to improve the ecological integrity, biodiversity, resilience and governance of Pinus uncinata forests in the Pyrenees by making them less vulnerable to global change and to demonstrate that human activities can be more compatible with their conservation. The actions of the project will be implemented in 6 SACs with strategic conservation plans and management actions aimed at preventing or reversing the current pressures on the habitat: natural dynamics management, nature-friendly forestry, protection against forest fires in priority areas, reduction of pressure from domestic and wild ungulates, regulation of frequency and recreational use, and education and awareness raising.

LIFE UNCINATA aims to improve significantly the ecological integrity, biodiversity, resilience and governance of Pinus uncinata forests in the Pyrenees.
Human-related pressures (climate change, land use changes, etc) threaten the habitat in the Pyrenees. The scope of this project is to make habitat less vulnerable to global change and to make human activities more compatible with its conservation.
No other previous LIFE projects have directly targeted this habitat. LIFE UNCINATA will have an impact in all the regions where this habitat occurs in the Pyrenees.
Action will be implemented in 6 SAC covering ca. 50% of the habitat in the Pyrenees based on a previous cutting edge diagnose using innovative methodological tools. Conservation strategies at Pyrenean and SAC scales will be planned and executive actions aimed to prevent or revert current pressures on the habitat.

Actions

Key conservation actions proposed by the project are:
a) Select mature forest stands to natural dynamic.
b) Promotion of biodiversity-friendly practices, such as closer-to-nature forestry.
c) Wildfire protection of priority areas at risk.
d) Reduction of browsing pressure from domestic and wild ungulates
e) Regulation of frequentation and recreational use.
f) Education and awareness.
These actions will have a synergical efect on the suitability of the habitat for species of conservation concern and of European interest. Also, LIFE UNCINATA has a broadly demonstrative scope, being the dissemination and transfer of knowledge a central axis of the project with potential effects beyond the habitat itself (e.g. to other mountain forests).
LIFE UNCINATA will contribute to several specific objectives of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the LIFE program for the conservation of mountain pine (Pinus uncinata) forests on limestone in the Pyrennees.