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Activity Funded

Preserving the singularity of Mediterranean high-mountain biodiversity hotspots: a NBS approach

Preservar a singularidade dos hotspots de biodiversidade de alta montanha no Mediterrâneo: uma abordagem de Soluções Baseadas na Natureza

Reference
BiodivNBS/0012/2023
Project Start Date
2025-04-01
Project End Date
2028-03-31
Principal Investigator
Scientific Area
Natural sciences
Funding Program
Projetos da Parceria Europeia Biodiversa+: Concurso 2023

Abstract

High-mountain wet grasslands represent habitats with the highest concentration of endemic diversity in the Mediterranean. The fact that they are contrasting and hyper diverse communities, subjected to strong pressures that threaten their conservation, makes them paired ecological sensors in scenarios of global change. They represent a real cocktail of exceptional natural values and environmental problems magnified and highly concentrated in space. The threats they suffer are both global (climate) and local (herbivory, tourist pressure). The main objective of our project is to reverse this process of wet meadows reduction and loss of connectivity using NBS approach for maintaining and restoring wet meadows in Mediterranean mountains. Traditional mountain irrigation systems sustain a high level of agricultural diversity (crops, pastures) and biological diversity (species and habitats), maintaining soil fertility. It provides a paradigmatic example of green and blue infrastructure, producing large-scale ecological corridors, facilitating ecological restoration processes. PRESINMED aims to create a pan- Mediterranean strategy for existing and foreseen monitoring and restoration based on NBS efforts in high mountain wet meadows hotspots. We will study in each mountain range a gradient of wet meadows according to the impact of the livestock load, and the pressure of tourism that they support, from the most visited to the least visited. For practical reasons, we divided the project objectives into 3 work packages: the WP1 diagnose the vulnerability of wet meadows; WP2 implement NBS-based restoration measures restoring ditches and their associated wet soil; WP3 implement joint participatory and co-governance strategies. Several case studies will be selected for the implementation of NBS in different Mediterranean mountains for the mitigation/restoration of target communities and species, together with protected area managers, private landowners and livestock farmers. The goal of this task is to co-create and transfer all the knowledge gained during the project to local communities of livestock farmers and small medium tourism companies to promote and expand current agrarian and ecotourism activities profiting from the demonstration activities performed in the project, thus supporting the uptake and further implementation of NBS over time on a wider scale after the project ends. This project will be carried out in a very representative sample of high mountains distributed along the Mediterranean Basin (Sierra Nevada in Spain; Sierra da Estrela in Portugal, Apennines and Mediterranean Alps in Italy and High Atlas in Morocco), all National Parks. The research groups involved have already demonstrated a broad and outstanding research experience in Mediterranean high mountains in all the topics addressed in this proposal as well as and a long experience of collaboration with local stakeholders.

Institutions

Main Institutions

  • Universidade de Coimbra Centre for Functional Ecology - Science for People& the Planet (UC CFE)
  • Universidade de Coimbra (UC)

Funding 105.598,90 €

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Portugal

105.598,90 €