Pastures vulnerability and adaptation strategies to climate change impacts in the Alps

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

BACKGROUND

Ecosystems in the Alps are considered as hotspots of climate and land use changes. Socio-economic changes in past decades have caused several modifications in the land-use intensity of many mountain regions, and permanent pastures have experienced negative consequences, with effects on biomass production, quality of forage, botanical composition, and biodiversity.

 

Natural pastures result from the combined influence of local environmental characteristics (mainly climate and soil properties) and centuries of managed livestock grazing. Properly managed pastoral farming is recognised as making a significant contribution to ecosystem carbon sequestration. European policies encourage low-carbon agricultural practices, but an accurate accounting of the carbon sink capacities of pastures in the north-west Alps, and the management practices that could enhance them, are not well known.

 

Climate change is affecting high mountain systems in different ways, such as water resources availability, advances in phenology, shifts in geographic ranges of some species or vegetation types, biodiversity loss, and thus reduction in some ecosystem services related to natural resources. However, in many alpine regions, measures to manage alpine pasture in the face of climate change are still lacking, with only ad hoc policies for marginal areas to preserve mountain farming and to promote mountain pasture conservation and extensive grazing.

 

OBJECTIVES

The overall aim of the LIFE PASTORALP project was to reduce the vulnerability and increase the resilience of alpine pasture agriculture by assessing and testing adaptation measures, increasing capacity building and developing improved management strategies for climate change adaptation. The achievement of this goal was based upon a solid science-based knowledge of future climate change impacts on pastoral communities located in two national parks, (the Parc National des Ecrins in France and the Parco Nazionale Gran Paradiso in Italy) in the western Alps, as examples of the alpine environment. Another goal of the project was the deployment of the PASTORALP platform tools for facilitating the development and adoption of climate change adaptation strategies in the two parks, which could then be transferred to other pastoral ecosystems across the Alps, along with the creation of guidelines and recommendations for adaptation planning.

 

In particular, the project provided improved and alternative criteria for well-informed decision-making by enhancing the knowledge base at local, regional, and national level on: (i) climate change projections targeted to the Alps, (ii) vulnerability of pasturelands, (iii) strategies for sustainable pastoralism and, (iv) the demonstration and evaluation of the effectiveness of the adaptation measures.

RESULTS

LIFE PASTORALP aimed at reducing the vulnerability of alpine pastures and at increasing their resilience by the assessment and testing of adaptation measures and the development of improved management strategies for climate change adaptation.

 

The achievement of this goals was based upon a solid science-based knowledge of future climate change impacts on pastoral communities located in two national parks in the Western Alps: Parc National des Ecrins (PNE) - France - and Parco Nazionale Gran Paradiso (PNGP) - Italy.

 

The project analysed the main impacts (both biophysical and socio-economic) of climate change on pastoral resources and related communities, in order to identify proper management and policy strategies ensuring environmental, social and economic sustainability of mountain Alpine pastures in the medium and long-term. This approach was implemented through different steps:

1. the development of an innovative approach to map and monitor pastoral resources, consistent between the two case-study areas;
2. the testing and monitoring of adaptation technical measures to manage livestock on mountain pastures affected by climate change in pilot sites;
3. the monitoring of biodiversity (fauna and flora) changes under the application of a set of adaption measures in pilot sites;
4. the identification of effective adaptation measures and policy strategies tackling current and future climate scenarios through several participatory events;
5. the validation and refinement of the adaptation strategies identified according to the opinion of relevant stakeholders;
6. the quantification of the biophysical impacts of a set of adaptation strategies by a modelling approach;
7. the socio-economic vulnerability analysis of climate change perceptions and impacts on rural communities located in the western Alps.
   

The main successes of the project were the following:

• The purchase by the PNGP of two strategic areas becoming a permanent demonstration areas. These areas are located in the Orco Valley, nearby the Dres Lake, and include relevant habitats listed in the Habitats Directive 92/43/CEE (namely HD code 7140, 7110, 3220, 6520, 9420 and 4060).  The purchase allowed the National Park to preserve and manage in a more appropriate way an important humid site, inappropriately managed until the 90s due to uncontrolled grazing and drainage, and a territory characterized by a mosaic of secondary grasslands and wooded pastures of about 13 ha wide due to shrubs/tree encroachment and reduced grazing activity.
• The update of the pastoral vegetation maps in the “Alpages sentinelles” of Chantelouve, Faravel, Saut-du-Laire and Vieille Selle (PNE) for a total of 2563 ha, the new map of pastoral lands in PNGP on 6870 ha, also covering valleys outside the park.
• The definition of 37 adaptation measures and 24 adaption policies. The measures, clustered on the need to adopt medium- or long-term interventions, were defined according to specific climate risks, with the aim to maintain forage production, improve water resource use, optimise the management of animals in mountain pastures, and protect alpine biodiversity. The policies propose actions at different governance levels in relation to the following items: pasture management, silvo-pastoral system, water, multifunctionality, cooperation and training, and biodiversity.
• The elaboration, based on the identified strategies, by the PNE of nine diagnostic plans that were integrated in 16 management plans, that will be operative from CAP 2023 onward, and by the PNGP the pastoral plans guidelines for the three project test sites of Noaschetta, Dres, and Gran Pra of Noasca.
• The development of the PASTORALP platform - https://www.pastoralp.eu/strumenti/ - , to ensure a wider adoption of the adaptation strategies for the mountain pastures and their replicability and to allow the decision-makers to take well-informed alternative solutions based on a solid scientific basis.
  

The communication activities were mainly focused on the organisation of participatory events aimed to an active involvement of the stakeholders on the elaboration of the adaptation strategies. Therefore, the meetings were structured in (i) three launching events, (ii) two consultation workshops, (iii) two validation workshops, iv) two demonstration events, v) two training seminars. The main result of these activities was the reduction of the gap between scientific and local understanding on climate change and mountain grazing systems. This helped to increase capacity building of the local pastoral sector for coping with climate change and accepting suggestions for practical and sustainable climate change proofing solutions for adaptation.