Objectives

Climate change affects negatively forest ecosystems according to the kind of forest and the specific variations of climatic conditions in each area. In any case, this is making forests to be less resilient against disturbances (fires, diseases, droughts...) and has negative impacts in both environmental and socioeconomic conditions in rural areas. To face this problem, the RESILIENT FORESTS project has, as main objective, the demonstration of a forest management approach at the watershed scale that improves the resilience of forests to climate change, enhancing the basin resilience to wildfire and other climate-induced disturbances, such as water scarcity and environmental degradation. At the same time, it tries to take advantage of the answers needed for the environmental and socioeconomic challenges that will arise in rural areas, providing a wide range of environmental, social and economic benefits.



To do that, the project has set 6 specific objectives:

1 To develop a Decision Support System (DSS) to guide forest managers in the introduction of climate change adaptation approaches in their forest managing decisions. It will be achieved through the update and optimization of forest management practices at the watershed scale, incorporating climate- change related issues.



2 To demonstrate the DSS at two different levels (sub-catchment and catchment) in three different countries (Germany, Portugal and Spain), adapting the DSS to the very different specific conditions of each area and involving the relevant stakeholders in the process.



3 To develop a complete monitoring of the project impacts, including an Life Cycle Assesment (LCA), so it can prove the environmental soundness of the project but also its socioeconomic positive impact in rural areas.

4 To develop and validate a specific transfer and replication strategy so that this management approach can be applied elsewhere in Europe and other areas, thanks to the flexibility and adaptability of the tool.



5 To develop networking activities so the project can benefit and take advantage of other successful initiatives/project related to forest management and climate change.



6 To carry out a wide dissemination action so that the project activities and outputs reaches the decisive public (from public administrations in rural areas to EU institutions) and private stakeholders (forest owners and managers) and can have a positive influence in regulations and policies across Europe.