At the 32nd meeting of the FAO work group for the Management of Mountain Watersheds, IIAMA UPV Researcher María González presented the work programme and the activities of LIFE Resilient Forests. The meeting was held from 25 to 27 September in Innsbruck, Austria.
During her presentation María González explained how a “ecohydrological” forest management approach can be a solution to adapt forests to climate change.
Climate change will increase both the frequency and the intensity of droughts in many parts of Europe, it will affect the availability of water resources and the risk of wildfires, Maria explains, it it is necessary to implement adaptation measures and LIFE Resilient Forests is a good example of this. By using a decision support software, the project aims at determining which type of forest management practices can be feasible both for public administrations and for private forest owners.
During the meeting, many participants showed interest in this research, and expressed concerns about the impacts of climate change on ecosystems. This is causing a proliferation of wildfires on forest areas which rarely had witnessed this kind of extreme phenomena in the past, Maria explains. A ecohydrological forest management” can be one of the solutions to adapt out forests to the changing climate.
We should consider water as one of the products of the forest. Not only it regulates the production of food and biomass, it also affects soil moisture and tree hydration, which help to improve the prevention of wildfires, Maria concluded.