Networking: LIFE CLIMARK

LIFE CLIMARK, Beyond carbon, promotes forest management for climate change mitigation through the design of a local climate credit market. The main objectives of the project are to contribute to the mitigation of climate change and increase the carbon sink capacity of Mediterranean forests by fostering the mitigating effects of multifunctional forest management through the creation of a climate credit market. The proposed multifunctional forest management is based on three pillars: carbon, water and biodiversity. The project is being implemented in the region of Catalonia (Spain) and is being replicated in the region of Veneto (Italy).

The specific objectives of the project are 1) to maintain and improve the mitigating capacity of forests in Mediterranean Europe; 2) to design a local ‘climate credit’ market as a tool to incentivise multifunctional forest management that focuses on climate change mitigation; and 3) to raise awareness, provide training and equip all those interested in compensating their emissions through ‘climate credits’ with the requisite tools.

The collaboration between the LIFE MIDMACC and LIFE CLIMARK projects is based on possibility to use the monitoring data gathered in the LIFE MIDMACC experimental plots to test and validate the methodology published by LIFE CLIMARK.  LIFE CLIMARK project is interested in the monitoring data of the Holm oak forest as example of a forest management towards an opened forest with pasture under the crowns, to test and validate the model for this kind of sustainable forest management.  LIFE CLIMARK offers their experience and background to design the management itineraries needed for the upscaling process and the replicability activities foreseen in LIFE MIDMACC.

Coordinator: The Forest Ownership Centre