Land Under Pressure

The montado is a multifunctional agro-sylvo-pastoral system that contributes with important ecosystem services. These services have been affected by desertification and climate change. 

 

The main objectives of the LandUnderPressure project are to avoid, mitigate and restore areas under pressure to combat desertification and to increase resilience to climate change in the montado and extensive pastures dominated by cork oak and/or holm oak trees in Portugal. This project is carried out at two scales:    

i) regional scale that includes the districts of Évora, Faro and Beja where productivity trend maps will be developed in order to support the Land Degradation Neutrality policy. 
 

ii) local scale, where a restoration pilot project will be implemented and monitored, located at Herdade da Coitadinha, Barrancos, where restoration practices will be applied through grazing management to promote the productivity of the montado and the provision of ecosystem services. 

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The pilot area and the regional area are integrated in the LTsER Montado platform (http://www.ltsermontado.pt/), an international network of Long Term Ecological Studies, which brings together researchers who collect, make available and analyse long-term ecological and socio-ecological data.