Integrated silvopastoral management plan: An innovative tool to preserve biodiversity and prevent wildfires

The LIFE Montserrat project aims to:
* Develop ecosystem-based measures to increase the resilience and stability of forests against fires, and to improve the prevention of wildfires in the project area by creating and/or maintaining strategic areas to help prevent the spread, facilitate the extinction and decrease the intensity and extension of wildfires;
* Contribute to the conservation and improvement of biodiversity in the Montserrat area, with habitats and species of high conservation value included in the EU Birds and Habitats directives. In particular, the project seeks to contribute to the conservation of the 16 threatened species that are found in the project area by maintaining and restoring some priority habitats, and improve the habitat of 121 species protected by the international, national or regional legislation by means of the recuperation of open habitats; and
* Contribute to biodiversity conservation by increasing connectivity through the creation of a mosaic of scrub, natural grasslands and forests that will link two Natura 2000 sites (Montserrat-Roques Blanques-Riu Llobregat and Sant Llorenç del Munt i l?Obac).
In order to meet these objectives, the project will implement, evaluate and disseminate an integrated silvopastoral management plan that will include a specific grazing management plan and a forest restoration plan. This plan will foster the multifunctionality and services of ecosystems. The total area covered by the project is 2 782.5 ha. A local community awareness campaign will also be undertaken and results will be publicly disseminated.
Expected results:
* Promotion of the resilience and stability of forest of community interest (habitat 9540);
* Reduction of the fuel volume in strategic areas by grazing: diminishing 80% of fine combustible on 2 782.5 ha;
* Minimised risk of forest fires by maintaining a mosaic type landscape;
* Reduction of the costs of fire extinction;
* Reduction of wildfire recurrence;
* Increased stakeholder awareness and involvement. More than 80 land stewardship contracts signed, 220 grazing permits awarded and 10 Livestock farmers engaged;
* Recovery of open habitats 6220* and 6420 among others;
* Recovery and/or of mantaining abandoned farmland habitats: 246 ha. (126 abandoned olive tree plantations that can be immediately pastured; 120 ha of abandoned farm land that can be immediately pastured);
* Increased survival rate and breeding success of Bonelli's eagle (Aquila fasciata);
* Increased number of threatened species (Alectoris rufa; Circus pygargus, Clamator glandarius, Corvus monedula, Neophron percnopterus, Oenanthe leucura, Streptopelia turtur);
* Creation of a mosaic of scrub, natural grasslands and forests that will link two Natura 2000 sites;
* Conservation and improvement of landscape quality;
* Enhanced functionality of the ecosystems as connectors (diminishing fragmentation, enhancing permeability and migration; and
* Increased the surface area and health of mosaic ecosystems.