Line of action:

Terrestrial ecosystems

Status:

Finalizado

Execution date:

2021

End date:

2022

Total budget:

100.937,42 €

Amount of aid from the Biodiversity Foundation:

70.148,67 €

MASBIO is framed within the problems of the rural areas of the Mediterranean river basins, which face the enormous environmental challenges of managing and responding to water scarcity, reducing erosion and conserving their abundant biodiversity.

According to BC3, these problems have been aggravated by poor land management practices and climate change. MASBIO seeks to propose sustainable land management actions at the watershed level, including actions that generate synergies between the hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere, and promote sustainable rural development.

The Mijares river basin offers an ideal environment for the investigation of the challenges posed by adaptation to climate change in the Mediterranean and, therefore, constitutes an exemplary pilot study from which to replicate the methodology developed.

The main objective is the identification and promotion of sustainable land management practices in the Mijares river basin.

Specific goals include:

• Compile existing information related to the biogeographic context and the current state of land use and activities related to the Mijares river basin.
• Understand the social dimension of the relevant stakeholders in the basin and reach consensus on various plausible socioeconomic scenarios in a participatory manner.
• Develop an interactive map of the watershed with a set of possible future land use scenarios.
• Development of possible action plans and an integrated document with adaptive solutions.

• Bibliographic review of scientific publications.
• Review of documents and technical reports.
• Contextualization of the current situation of the basin within the framework of plans related to climate change and sustainability.
• Identification of relevant stakeholders in the Mijares river basin.
• Holding of participatory workshops with relevant stakeholders by sector and a collective workshop.
• Analysis of perceptions and priorities.
• Generation of an interactive map of the basin.
• Evaluation of possible implementation measures based on biophysical capabilities, ecosystem service priorities and identified socioeconomic barriers.
• Preparation of scientific publications and outreach activities for Mijares stakeholders.
• Dissemination and communication of the project.

• An interdisciplinary methodology has been developed with the objective of identifying and promoting holistic adaptation measures that foster ecosystem services in the watershed while being in line with an inclusive socio-ecological transition.
• For this purpose, areas of supply and demand of ecosystem goods and services have been modeled with the ARIES software.
• Appropriate sustainable land management measures have been identified to provide the different ecosystem services based on existing best practices in the Mediterranean.
• Local knowledge and capacities have been incorporated into the proposed measures through participation and dialogue with key stakeholders to build regional and local narratives.
• This methodology has made it possible to incorporate the information gathered from the participatory processes into the portfolio of sustainable land management measures, and this in turn, into the ecosystem goods and services models.
• As a final result, co-produced socio-ecological scenarios have been obtained that show the benefits, risks and trade-offs of the adaptation measures considered and incorporate the values and perceptions of the communities operating in the territory.