Collserola will improve the agroforestry planning of the Natural Park with the collaboration of CREAF

Over the next five years, Collserola will be an open-air laboratory to experiment with innovative tools and instruments that improve the management of forests, biodiversity and ecosystems in this natural setting. The European LIFE MetroForest project, coordinated by the Serra de Collserola Natural Park Consortium and with the participation of CREAF, is starting, which will promote adaptive agroforestry management, the conservation and improvement of biodiversity and the resilience of Mediterranean metropolitan forests.

The Serra de Collserola Natural Park is a territory of more than 8,000 hectares located inside the metropolitan area of Barcelona, where most of the forests belong to the Natura 2000 network , the most important tool in Europe for nature and biodiversity conservation and the largest network of protected areas in the world. In addition, 60% of Collserola's property is private; therefore, it is necessary to work with different actors to be able to agree on mechanisms to manage the space efficiently. To that effect, it is important to highlight that the project has the involvement of the Collserola Initiatives Private Forest Owners Association. LIFE MetroForest will promote a new co-management model based on the establishment of a massif-scale plan to define the master lines of the future and have a more resilient and adapted space; Pilot tests will be carried out within the framework of the estate management plans and a multi-criteria tool for monitoring and managing the space will be developed.

“In addition, the forests of the Mediterranean region are especially vulnerable to climate change, so the learnings from this project will be very interesting,” concludes Joan Pino.

Human pressure and extreme phenomena resulting from the climate crisis mean that Collserola requires actions to make its management more resilient and transversal and long-term planning. The LIFE MetroForest project will allow the development of three instruments:

• A data-based management tool, the multi-criteria tool, which will function as a cartographic model to continuously monitor the state of the Park. Based on periodically updated data, the tool will allow the assessment of the situation of the territory and its use, analyze its evolution and automatically calculate key indicators on the state of forests and biodiversity. This information will facilitate agile and well-founded decision-making, aimed at dynamic and adaptive planning and management of the protected natural space.
• A forest management plan at massif scale, which will define the strategic management lines focused on promoting the ecosystem services offered by Collserola. This global vision will allow us to overcome the limited forest management on each estate and approach the park as a whole when identifying the main threats and opportunities. Based on this analysis, the priorities for action, restoration and management of the agroforestry mosaic of the Natural Park will be defined, with the aim of moving towards a more coherent, efficient and adaptive management of the massif.
• An instrument to boost co-management, the estate management plans, which must allow the guidelines of the massif's forest management plan and the data provided by the multi-criteria tool to be put into practice on each estate. These plans will define the specific actions on the estates of the park where economic activities are carried out, with the aim of promoting sustainable models that respect conservation and improve the state of the Natural Park. The environmental compensations of these activities will also be analyzed to ensure that they bring benefits to the territory. Continuous monitoring will allow identifying which measures strengthen resilience to climate change and which enhance the park's natural services. This approach promotes a new model of public-private collaboration in which owners, managers and other actors share responsibility for the management of this protected natural space.

The project is coordinated by the Serra de Collserola Natural Park Consortium and, in addition to CREAF and the Collserola Iniciatives Association of private owners, the Barcelona Metropolitan Area, the Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food of the Generalitat de Catalunya, the company Föra Forest Technologies and the European Forum on Urban Forestry (EFUF) are participating. The pilot tests to implement the proposals of the estate management plans will be carried out on a total of six estates: three publicly owned and three privately owned.

The LIFE MetroForest project has been one of the winners of the call for financial aid from the European Commission's LIFE programme in the field of climate change mitigation and adaptation (2024). The LIFE programme is the European Union's financial instrument for the environment and climate action. It is structured in four sub-programmes that seek to develop, demonstrate, promote and stimulate the application of innovative techniques, methods and approaches to achieve the objectives of European Union legislation and policy in the field of biodiversity, environment, climate action and the transition to sustainable renewable energy. It also aims to contribute to improving governance, training public and private actors and the replication of successful technical and policy solutions. Thanks to this recognition, the LIFE MetroForest project has a European co-financing of 60% .