Ecology of Environmental Change - eChanges

LandUnderPressure - Avoiding, mitigating and restoring land under pressure to combat desertification and increase resilience to climate change in the montado

• WEBPAGE
• International Research Project
• 2022 to 2024

Summary:

The project LandUnderPressure is focused on cork oak and holm oak woodlands (Montados), and aims to contribute to preventing, mitigating and restoring areas under pressure to combat desertification and increase resilience to climate change. The project is developed at 2 scale. At the regional scale, which covers all areas of the more arid Alentejo, the goal is to determine the reference productivity level of the Montado, and its tendency to increase or decrease in recent years, to support Land Degradation Neutrality policies. At the local scale, it consists in the implementation of a pilot restoration test at Herdade da Coitadinha in Barrancos, through grazing management. The objective is to promote the regeneration of the Montado and boost various ecosystem services, for example improving soil fertility and erosion control, climate regulation and biodiversity, including the enhancement of nature tourism. The results of the project will allow to identify areas most vulnerable to desertification and the most suitable places to implement different restoration measures. The results will be disseminated through different means and to different audiences, in permanent dialogue and collaboration with our partners and with local and regional stakeholders.

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Funding Institution:

EEA and Norwegian Financial Mechanisms 2014-2020, Programa "Ambiente, Alterações Climáticas e Economia de Baixo Carbono".

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Partners:

Instituto Politécnico de Bragança, The Soil Conservation Service of Iceland;

Colaborators: Herdade da Coitadinha-EDIA, Instituto Superior Técnico, FCT-Nova.

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