PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
LIFE UNCINATA’ aims to improve significantly the ecological integrity, biodiversity, resilience and governance of Pinus uncinata forests in the Pyrenees. Human-related pressures (climate change, land use changes, etc) threaten the habitat in the Pyrenees. The scope of this project is to make habitat less vulnerable to global change and to make human activities more compatible with its conservation. No other previous LIFE projects have directly targeted this habitat. LIFE UNCINATA will have an impact in all the regions where this habitat occurs in the Pyrenees. Catalonia and Navarra are partners of this proposal while the other regions will participate in Coordination and Expert Advisor Committees. Action will be implemented in 6 SACs hosting ca. 50% of the habitat in the Pyrenees, despite actual area is poorly known. Implementation is based on a previous cutting edge diagnose using innovative methodological tools, conservation planning at Pyrenean and SAC scales, and executive actions aimed to prevent or revert current pressures on the habitat. Key conservation actions proposed by the project are: a) Select mature forest stands to natural dynamics. b) Promotion of biodiversity-friendly practices, such as closer-to-nature. c) Wildfire protection of priority areas under current risk. d) Reduction of browsing pressure from domestic and wild ungulates e) Regulation of frequentation and recreational use. f) Education and awareness. These actions will have a synergical efect on the suitability of the habitat for species of conservation concern and of European interest. Also, LIFE UNCINATA has a broadly demonstrative scope, being the dissemination and transfer of knowledge a central axis of the project with potential effects beyond the habitat itself (e.g. to other mountain forests). LIFE UNCINATA* contributes to several specific objectives of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the LIFE program.LIFE per la millora de l'h?bitat de Pi Negre en s?l calcari.