MONTADO & CLIMATE; A NEED TO ADAPT (LIFE Montado-Adapt)

Description:

The LIFE project Montado-Adapt aims to raise awareness of innovative adaptation technologies in Portuguese and Spanish Montado and Dehesa (M/D) landscapes and communities. It aims to demonstrate sustainable and profitable integrated land use systems (ILU) and to increase their implementation. ILU helps to restore the multifunctional character of the landscape and its contribution to socio-economic development, environmental services, and biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration.

Another key objective of Montado-Adapt is to maximize the transformational impact of these adaptation technologies and ecosystem services, and securing their replication and upscaling, through a farmer-to-farmer ILU adoption plan.

The project includes five major steps: (1) Evaluation of Pilot Areas; (2) Definition of Indicators and Current Situation; (3) Development of the Integrated Land Use (ILU) Systems; (4) Training of Owners/Partners; and (5) Implementation of ILU in the 12 Pilot Areas.

If the climate has already changed, the systems must also change. Therefore, the Integrated Land Use approach of the Montado-Adapt projects follows five main strategies:

• Diversify crop production by alternating agricultural crops with forest ones, choosing the ones which are tolerant to the expected climate changes;
• Diversify cultures and varieties by opting for the most resistant to the adverse climatic conditions and profitable from an economic point of view;
• Act in accordance with international standards for the certification of products;
• Improve soil fertility through green manures, mycorrhization, etc; and
• Diversify, not only in terms of eco-products, but also eco-services.

Another important approach is peer-to-peer training, i.e. project partners are trained as promoters, each successfully transferring their knowledge to other farmers resulting in certified ILU designs for their land.

Project information

Lead

Associaçao de Defesa do Patrimonio de Mértola

Partners

CONSEJERIA DE MEDIO AMBIENTE Y ORDENACION DEL TERRITORIO, Spain

Grupo Casablanca-Cáparra SL, Spain

DEHESA DEL GUIJO S.A., Spain

UNIVERSIDAD DE EXTREMADURA, Spain

Empresa de Desenvolvimento e Infraestruturas do Alqueva, Portugal

AYUNTAMIENTO DE VILLASBUENAS DE GATA, Spain

UNAC - União da Floresta Mediterrânica, Portugal

Universidade de Évora, Portugal

Sociedade Agricola do Freixo do Meio, Lda, Portugal

FACULDADE DE CIENCIAS DA UNIVERSIDADE DE LISBOA, Portugal

Instituto Nacional de Investigação Agrária e Veterinaria, Portugal

TerraSIG Lda., Portugal

ANSUB – Associação dos Produtores Florestais do Vale do Sado, Portugal

Forestry Service Group, The Netherlands

EXPLOTACIONES AGROPECUARIAS LA RINCONADA SL, Spain

ICNF - Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas, Portugal

Source of funding

LIFE Programme