Preserving Mediterranean high-mountain biodiversity hotspots through Nature-Based Solutions and participatory governance

Abstract

High-mountain wet grasslands represent habitats with the highest concentration of endemic diversity in the Mediterranean. The fact that they are contrasting and hyper diverse communities, subjected to strong pressures that threaten their conservation, makes them paired ecological sensors in scenarios of global change. The threats they suffer are both global (climate) and local (herbivory, tourist pressure).

The main objective of our project is to reverse this process of wet meadows reduction and loss of connectivity using Nature-based Solutions (NbS) approach for maintaining and restoring wet meadows in Mediterranean mountains. To this purpose, we will analyse the ecological responses and community dynamics of different Mediterranean mountain ecosystems across a large gradient of ecological conditions. Our goal is to use different NbS, specifically adapted to each study site, to maintain and restore biodiversity and ecological functions in Mediterranean mountain wet meadows and snowbed grasslands.

As a result, we will identify and create climate-resilient green infrastructures and associated science-policy-society-enterprise interfaces to effectively and adaptively address the social, economic and environmental challenges of these areas. NbS will help to mitigate multiple hazards in mountains (e.g. reduction of water availability, landslides, water stress, food insecurity) while generating a range of co-benefits (e.g. biodiversity conservation, income-generating opportunities, recreation, etc.), sequestering carbon, and increasing resilience against the impacts of a changing climate.