Forest bioeconomy for ecosystem, socioeconomic and cultural resilience in the Pyrenees
The project aims to investigate the management practices of services and natural resources in the Aragonese Pyrenees, identifying opportunities for conservation and employment, in order to strengthen the competitiveness and sustainability of the local economy, based on the traditional practices and the effective valuation of ecosystem services, through a pilot case in the municipalities of Aísa, Ansó, Aragües, Borau, Canal de Berdún, Valle de Hecho and Jasa, including the Western Valleys Natural Park.
Traditionally, mountain territories have subsisted through a few ancestral economic activities (forestry and livestock sectors), to which tourism has been added in recent decades. However, the social and economic model of recent decades has facilitated rural depopulation and the loss of value of natural resources and ecosystem services, resulting in a fragile situation for the rural territory as a whole.
In the current context of demographic challenge and climate change, it is essential to recover traditional economic activities – respectful of the environment and native species, since employment derives directly from their correct conservation, management and exploitation – and promote new solutions that are improving. , innovative and lasting over time.
Actions
- Make the demand and supply of pastures compatible through a Management Plan.
- Maximize returns from forest areas in a context of sustainable exploitation.
- Strengthen the supply of forest products and continued demand by facilitating the installation of pellet boilers.
- Promote employment in local livestock farming through recovery of pastures and optimization of livestock density.
- Define and value regulatory ecosystem services and the influence of activities on them.
- Study the feasibility of commercializing ecosystem services and propose transfer mechanisms.
- Socioeconomic and tourism diagnosis and implementation of a pilot test to achieve sustainable tourism development in the region.
- Implement an Adaptive Management Plan that integrates the different actions of the project.
- Replicability and scalability.
