The LIFE Montado-Adapt project, coordinated by the Mértola Heritage Defense Association (ADPM), developed a digital decision support tool for Montado owners in Portugal and Spain.
The Montado is a semi-natural agroforestry system that occupies a large part of the territory of the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula, especially in the Alentejo region and in the Spanish regions of Andalusia and Extremadura. It is an ecosystem to be preserved: its natural balance depends on the correct management and sustainable exploitation of its natural resources. These systems have been undergoing changes in the way they are managed, as a result of technological and socio-economic changes that have driven the abandonment or intensification of Montado areas, which in turn lead to their degradation.
In addition to this unfavorable situation, climate change is one of the biggest current problems affecting this ecosystem, with the adaptation of its management being the greatest challenge to maintain the balance and sustainability of the Montados. In recent decades, increases in the frequency, intensity and duration of droughts, reductions in precipitation levels and increases in temperature have been recorded in the Mediterranean region, a situation that will tend to get worse in the future. In this context, it is necessary to introduce new practices in the management of Montados, with a view to reducing the vulnerability of this ecosystem to climate change. The innovation of its management is also essential to make its products more competitive and differentiated, thus reconciling the preservation of nature with maintaining the profitability of farms.
The LIFE Montado-Adapt project, which is in the final stages of implementation, has developed a methodology for adapting the Montado to climate change, known as SIGM – Integrated Montado Management System, which aims to respond to the main impacts of climate change. These impacts are visible at several levels:
– Increased decline and mortality of trees;
– Decrease in the productivity and quality of pastures and livestock production;
– Decreasing available water;
– In soil degradation;
– And in the reduction of the economic profitability of holdings.
In this way, adaptation strategies were developed that aim to respond to present and future impacts, which resulted in the definition of 40 adaptation measures for Montados to climate change. Over the past 5 years these measures have been implemented on an experimental basis in 12 pilot areas in Portugal and Spain. The next step is to share the knowledge and experience gained with other owners, so that the solutions found can be replicated. It is in this sense that a digital tool was developed to support farmers, which aims to encourage the adoption of these practices in Montados.
The purpose of the Platform is to support Montado managers so that they become adaptation agents. With this tool, the farmer makes a diagnosis of his Montado and obtains an indication of the adaptation measures to be applied. For each adaptation measure, a set of information is given, such as how to implement it, the reason for its application, the contribution of the measure to adaptation to climate change, or the assessment of its cost, among other information. For a better understanding of each adaptation measure, a short video is also available that succinctly demonstrates its importance and applicability, with the testimony of the farmers who implemented them in the different pilot areas of the LIFE Montado-Adapt project.
Access to the platform is simple and free, and must be done through the website www.sigm.lifemontadoadapt.com or in www.lifemontadoadapt.com
.When accessing this platform, the farmer registers using an e-mail address and then registers his farm. The system allows the registration of different holdings or different properties, which will allow different diagnoses for each property or holding. Subsequently, a set of questionnaires is started referring to the five key areas: trees, livestock, water, soil and profitability. The result of this questionnaire, which allows characterizing the operation, is to direct the farmer towards the priority adaptation measures to be implemented.
The Platform also makes available a set of support resources, with content on product diversification, a list of Montados species (suitable for each type of climate and soil, as well as the various economic uses and ecosystem services promoted by each species), support for the marketing of Montado products, the various financial support available and even information on forest management certification systems.
Finally, the farmer indicates, by filling in a final form, which measures he intends to apply to his cork oak forest and, if he intends to plant a variety of trees or shrubs, he can also select the desired species, and have an offer of 100 plants (by the Valverde nursery of the ICNF). In this way, it becomes part of the Network of Active Montados in Adapting to Climate Change, where it can obtain technical or material support for the implementation of measures on the ground, and participate in a group for sharing experiences and knowledge, to find joint solutions for the Montados adaptive management.
Source: RRN