A study led by CREAF has found that new forests growing on abandoned rural land are able to capture more carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere than long-established forests. This effect could be temporary, however, as the wood of their trees is less dense, making them more vulnerable to extreme climate events.
Polyfarming is a regenerative agriculture project that combines forest resources, livestock and crops to recover a fertile soil in Mediterranean mountain areas. The project, co-financed by the European Commission's LIFE program, is led by the CREAF and the Planeses farm, where it is carried out on a real scale.
In its application, CREAF proposed a strategic research plan for generating knowledge to help tackle the 21st century’s main environmental problems, such as climate change and biodiversity loss. Following rigorous international evaluation, CREAF has been chosen for accreditation on the basis of its scientific results and strategic programmes.
Cities across Europe and China are preparing to green themselves. The Sino-European project Clearing House was officially launched and will be expanding the knowledge of trees and forests in urban areas.
With a view to improving access to and the availability and use of geospatial data, the intergovernmental partnership GEO (Group on Earth Observations) has this year established a GEO Associate membership category for organizations based anywhere in the world and related to such data. CREAF recently became one of the first six GEO Associates.
The main carbon store in the planet’s soil is peat, a deposit of plant origin found in water-saturated areas called peat bogs or peatlands. In total, peatlands contain over 550 gigatons of carbon in the form of partially decomposed plant matter, representing 42% of all soil carbon worldwide.
In this sense, CREAF wants to boost the social and institutional awareness about climate change through its communication channels.
Committed to the Covering Climate Now initiative
