PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
European forests play a crucial role in carbon balances, with an impact on climate change mitigation of around 13% of total EU emissions. However, in the past decade, saturation in the carbon sink capacity of European forests have been recorded, and no improvement is expected in the near future. There are not enough incentives for forest owners to manage their forests for mitigation purposes, which hinders forest management in difficult socio-economic contexts such as that of Mediterranean forests. Sustainable forest management is therefore a key tool to maintain and enhance the mitigation capacity of forests, while contributing to their adaptation to the new climate context.
OBJECTIVES
The overall purpose of the LIFE CLIMARK project was to promote multifunctional forest management for climate change mitigation and adaptation, through the design of a local market of ‘climatic credits’. Climatic credits are devised from a holistic perception of forest management –aligned with newly developed climate smart forestry – which takes into account i) the local characteristics of the territory to identify the most cost-effective management options, and ii) the application of solutions that capitalise adaptation/mitigation synergies. The project takes place in Catalonia (Spain) and it is replicated in Veneto (Italy). The specific objectives of the project were to:
- Maintain and improve the mitigation capacity of European Mediterranean forests through the application and promotion of locally identified forestry practices and to assess their impact on three ecosystem services, namely climate regulation, water flow regulation and biodiversity. Three key indicators have been identified (carbon sink capacity, water use efficiency and biodiversity), whose valuation will allow the definition of the new ’climatic credit’ concept;
- Design a local market of ’climatic credits’ as a tool to promote multifunctional forest management in a rural abandonment context, and to provide the means for its replication in other European regions; and
- Raise awareness, build capacities and provide tools to all stakeholders interested in compensating CO2 emissions through the generation of ’climatic credits’ by means of forestry projects and to disseminate them internationally.
LIFE CLIMARK aimed to have a direct impact over the land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF) sector by addressing the following challenges:
- Compilation of robust carbon data and development of transparent accounting rules;
- Proposed measures to enhance forests’ contribution to EU mitigation goals through multifunctional and sustainable forest management; and
- The inclusion of forest fire prevention within the mitigation forestry measures envisaged, to allow, for the first time, for carbon emissions reduced or avoided through fire prevention measures to be part of compensation schemes.
In addition, CLIMARK project’s objective to improve and conserve biodiversity in managed forests is in line with the EU biodiversity strategy.
RESULTS
LIFE CLIMARK promoted multifunctional forest management for climate change mitigation, by designing a local market for “climatic credits”. These were devised from a holistic forest management perspective, and aligned with new climate-smart forestry principles, namely, (i) taking into account the local characteristics of the territory to identify the most cost-effective management options, and (ii) applying solutions that capitalise on adaptation and mitigation synergies.
The project team implemented 8 pilot trials for buying and selling transactions of climate credits, better than was expected thanks to the good acceptance of the idea both from forest owners and the potential buyers of the credits. In addition, the Catalan government formally committed to supporting the new voluntary climate credit market through a government agreement to be launched in 2023.
The project:
- Designed a pioneering regional funding mechanism for ecosystem services generated by forest management: the new Voluntary Climate Credit Market.
- Published a methodology for estimating the impact of forest management on carbon and water balances and on biodiversity, agreed with the main research experts and participating stakeholders.
- Proposed and introduced Forestry Projects for Climate Change Mitigation and. Adaptation (PROMACC) - land management based on local participation and co-governance.
The project yielded two types of quantitative environmental/climate benefits. Firstly, those directly related to the forest treatments, including a 32% reduction of the risk of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from forest fires in 12 adult forests, by integrating fire prevention measures into forest planning and execution; and the conservation of biodiversity and increased resilience of over 100 ha of forests in Catalonia.
Secondly, benefits linked to the functioning of the market for “Climate Credits”, due to PROMACC’s execution on carbon sequestration, blue water supply, and the capacity to host biodiversity in the next 15 years. These benefits included:
- Over 450 ha made resilient to climate change, with the total impact expected in the first 5 pilot schemes over the next 15 years to be 14 500 tCO2 sequestered or avoided, 757 000 m3 of water generated, and a 26% improved ability to host biodiversity of the managed forests.
- Over €225 000 raised to support multifunctional forestry management; when the 8 pilot trials are completed this amount would rise to €1 400 000.
- 8 local and regional associations of forest owners trained and collaborating towards joint forest management to foster climate change mitigation and adaptation.
- Over 30 public and private organisations committed to supporting multifunctional forestry management in Catalonia.
Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report and After-LIFE Communication Plan (see "Read more" section).
