LIFE Soria ForestAdapt

The project aims to increase the resilience of forests in southern Europe to climate change, by including adaptive measures in public and private forest management plans. It is intended to develop a Technical Reference for Management and Forestry with measures to adapt to climate change that is taken as a basis for the gradual modification of forest management plans throughout the province of Soria.

This province is an example of forest management since the Middle Ages, and work will be carried out on 200,881 ha of public forests (average of 12,000 ha/year) and on all private lands that are likely to implement afforestation programs, especially reforestation of agricultural land. It is intended to expand the model to the rest of the Autonomous Community of Castilla y León, the rest of Spain and Southern Europe.

Specific objectives:

• Contribute to the development of European policies through Rural Development Programmes.
• Contribute to Spanish and regional Climate Change strategies
• Improvement of knowledge and monitoring of adaptation measures, uniting ecosystem management and adaptation strategies in forest management plans.
• Development and demonstration of innovative silvicultural practices that can be replicated.
• Develop and implement on a larger scale an expanded methodology derived from LIFE AgriAdapt to assess the vulnerability of forest stands and support decision-making (indicators from FSC and PEFC certifications).
• Replication at European/global level of the methodology (FSC Certification and PEFC Certification), using the tools of FSC and PEFC certifications, and indicators of adaptation of forest management to climate change.
• Contribute to the EU Climate Change Adaptation Strategy: Action 4: Close the knowledge gap; Action 5: Develop climate ADAPT for adaptation information; Action 6: Facilitating climate protection in the CAP.
• Focus adaptation measures in a special way on soil conservation and carbon sequestration, biodiversity conservation and air quality.
• Replicable adaptation measures to relict wooded ecosystems threatened by climate change (Pinus uncinata, Juniperus thurifera, Taxus baccata, etc.).
• Involve the private sector in the financing of adaptive measures as a complement to those of carbon footprint compensation in the forestry sector.

LIFE Soria ForestAdapt is one of the projects approved in the 2019 call by the European Commission for the execution of LIFE action programs against climate change. The project has a total budget of 1,595,745 euros and an execution period of four years. The Global Nature Foundation assumes the coordination of the project in collaboration with the Center for Forest Services and Promotion Foundation and its Industry of Castilla y León (Cesefor), the Private Company and Climate Foundation (FEC), the Association to promote the rational use of forest products and services (FSC Spain), the Spanish Association for Forest Sustainability (PEFC Spain) and the University of Valladolid (UVa).

The Junta de Castilla y León is a collaborator in this project, and a strategic ally when accompanying the rest of the partners in the development of some of the actions.

More information: https://www.soriaforestadapt.es/

Castilla and leon meeting The Junta de Castilla y León is a collaborator in this project, and a strategic ally when accompanying the rest of the partners in the development of some of the actions. As an interlocutor in the Administration, it also becomes a fundamental piece to submit the results of this project to the General Directorate for Nature Conservation so that they can be assessed in the next revisions of the National Forest Plan. In addition, after the completion of the project, the Junta de Castilla y León will extrapolate the experience and the sustainable adaptation measures integrated in the Soria forest management plans to other action plans in the rest of the Autonomous Community.