The project was designed to prevent fires and improve the biodiversity of a typical Mediterranean mountain environment such as Montserrat, through silvopastoral management practices.

The islands of Macaronesia are not spared from the effects of climate change, being very vulnerable to their consequences given their particular geographical situation, insularity, remoteness from the continent, fragmentation, external dependency, scarcity of natural resources, demographic density, dependence on the tourism sector and great biodiversity.

The Kis-Sárrét area is located in south-eastern Hungary close to the Romanian border. The area is part of the Körös-Maros National Park and is included in the Natura 2000 network. It hosts numerous plants, animals, and habitat types of EU community importance. Its landscape has undergone dramatic changes during the past 200 years. In particular, extensive marshes were reduced and altered as a result of water regulations between 1856 and 1879. As a consequence, many areas constantly or temporarily covered by water disappeared, and the traditional management of the natural landscape changed.

The Ebro delta (Catalonia, Spain) and its coastal lagoons (Alfacada and Tancada) are vulnerable to the effects of climate change, particularly to sea level rise. In combination with sediment deficit due to river regulation and subsidence, sea lever rise can lead to exacerbated coastal erosion and retreat. Local management practices (e.g. intensive rice farming) have also affected the natural habitats and species of the delta, causing wetland loss and changes in salinity and water quality.

Historically, the Regge was a free-flowing shallow lowland river which meandered through a landscape containing marshes, wet meadows and sandy levees. To facilitate shipping, from 1848 onwards the river was straightened by cutting off meanders, and the river channel was deepened and widened. Dams were built to better regulate the river flow, and the floodplain was embanked to protect the adjacent land from flooding. In 1935, the river was almost completely canalised, reducing its length from roughly 70 km to 50 km.

The project involves a pilot experience to find suitable formulas to slow down, as much as possible, the process of environmental degradation taking place in the Maspalomas dune complex during the last 50 years, to avoid the disappearance of the mobile dune area and preserve its environmental value ​​and importance as a tourist attraction. The most important erosion factors in the dune system are storms and the alterations derived from climate change.

Las Tablas de Daimiel National Park is a protected natural space, a unique Mediterranean wetland of great natural and cultural value ​​due to the hydrographic basin and geology on which it sits. The confluence of two rivers in an area  of minimum slope causes their waters to overflow, which together with the underground contribution of a large aquifer leads to the formation of a puddled river zone: the fluvial flats.

The objective of the Pteridum project was to analyze the economic viability of controlling common fern populations (Pteridium aquilinum) in a circular economy system adapted to climate change in the Cantabrian Mountains, and reducing forest fires caused or favored by their presence by controlling their expansion in an environmentally respectful way.

Author of the picture: Guillermo Cobos Campos/Fototeca CENEAM

Until the 70s, the lower course of the Arga River near the confluence with the Aragon River flowed with a meandering channel, occupying a wide flood plain characterized by intense fluvial dynamics. In this situation, it was considered necessary to carry out works to contain river floods, by rectifying and channel the section stretching from the town of Falces to the mouth of the Aragón River.

This case describes the steps taken towards achieving more balanced management of Cork Harbour, through the establishment of a strategic alliance (couplet) between the local authority and multidisciplinary academic experts. This innovative partnership resulted in the adoption of an Integrated Management Strategy. A stakeholder group – Harbour Management Focus Group (HMFG) – comprising statutory and non-statutory organisations was established to implement the management strategy.