LIFE highlights projects restoring mountain lands

Much of life depends on freshwater sources rising in mountain ranges and flowing downstream. The mountains of Southern Europe and their mosaic landscapes are highly sensitive to climate change, such as drought, wildfires, and flash floods. Two LIFE projects in Spain and Italy – LIFE MIDMACC and STONEWALLSFORLIFE – are boosting the regional lands’ resilience.    

In the marginal mid-mountains of La Rioja, Aragon, and Catalonia in Northern Spain, efforts have been underway for five years to protect mixed-use forest and agricultural land. Environments with more diverse uses are more sustainable. LIFE MIDMACC works with nine specific sites, applying various climate change adaptation approaches.  

These include clearing scrubland for greater pasture diversity in farming; managing forests against wildfires; and capturing rainwater for more efficient vineyard growing practices. The project has established three regional and national stakeholder groups and conducted a cross-sector climate change vulnerability assessment to understand future climate risks. Through monitoring and modelling, it has created adaptation measures for specific sites, a united policy framework for three regional governments, and integrated Adaptation Guidelines for other mid-mountain areas.  

But frameworks and guidelines only go so far in saving our forests and pastoral lands; building local capacity is key to restoring these environments. LIFE MIDMACC has an extensive network of partners; many of them are fellow LIFE projects, connecting environmental efforts across communities and borders. Speaking about such capacity building, “We have promoted the recovery of the agro-silvo-pastoral mosaic as one of the most important strategies in adapting mid-mountain areas in Spain to climate change. To achieve this, we have successfully engaged over 200 local stakeholders with the aim of building climate resilient landscapes,” said Eduard Pla, technical coordinator of LIFE MIDMACC. 

Along Italy’s picturesque Cinque Terre region, the towns of Manarola, Monterosso, and Vernazza are at increased risk of flooding and landslides. The landscape is veined with drystone walls and terraces, which are proving to be extremely useful against climate change. This traditional agricultural technique is stopping heavy rainfall and floodwaters in their tracks.   

The five-year STONEWALLSFORLIFE project is restoring 4 000 square metres of walls, and five hectares of terraces. It will identify a further 40 hectares of terracing for restoration, using nine techniques across wall construction, soil restoration, and farming. Around 80 people are part of the restoration process including famers, landowners, drystone wall professionals, investors, and regional policy makers.  

The project is also an opportunity to pass on the knowledge of a traditional trade, through training programmes. During the project, 12 jobs have been created, with a potential further 55 new positions on project completion.  On the successes of the project, “Alongside the recovery of agricultural areas, according to allocation criteria aimed at youth job creation, social inclusion, and the creation of new green jobs, as well as the valorisation of agroecological cultivation methods, the project has also carried out in-depth research and monitoring work on the dry-stone wall building technique as a climate change resilience tool. The increasingly extreme and frequent weather events affecting our, as well as many other valuable territories, require immediate prevention, mitigation, and adaptation measures,” said Donatella Bianchi, President of Cinque Terre National Park.  

In Italy, drystone walls have shown to be excellent for water drainage and stopping landslides. In El Garraf Natural Park in Spain, STONEWALLSFORLIFE project is evaluating if this technique can counteract wild- and forest fires. Speaking about this regional connection, “The protected areas of the province of Barcelona have an old connection with the Cinque Terre. Since 1998, we have initiated programmes for studying climate change, focusing on the recovery of dry-stone walls, agriculture, and fire prevention,” said Xavier Roget, from Natural Areas Services Management at El Garraf Natural Park.    

Over 3 700 events are being held around the world this week to mark World Environment Day, under the banner of “We are #GenerationRestoration. These include speeches, film screenings, tree planting in local communities, climate change awards, poster competitions, online quizzes, waste/plastic-free lunches at schools and workplaces, people wearing green outfits, climate, and environment pledges, and many more.  

LIFE MIDMACC and STONEWALLSFORLIFE align to the EU Strategy on Adaption to Climate Change; and Assessment and Management of Flood Risks Directive.