Mid-mountain adaptation to climate change

LIFE MIDMACC (Mid-mountain adaptation to climate change) promotes adaptation through the implementation and testing of different landscape management measures to address climate change related challenges in marginal mid-mountain areas of Spain (La Rioja, Aragon and Catalonia), while improving their socio-economic development.

Mountain areas in southern Europe are highly sensitive to climate change. In Mediterranean mid-mountain areas, available water resources have progressively decreased in recent decades due to climate change. In particular, longer and more severe droughts, coupled with more frequent and more intense heat waves, are increasing the vulnerability of these areas to forest fires and the phenomenon of deforestation. In addition, the progressive abandonment of traditional land uses due to the lack of generational replacement is causing a generalised loss of mosaic landscapes, which are more resilient to climatic extremes. In this context, the LIFE MIDMACC project, Mid-mountain adaptation to climate change, has implemented concrete adaptation strategies in three strategic areas in the south of the Pyrenees (north of the Iberian Peninsula), through innovative landscape management techniques.