The Pyrenean Climate Change Observatory (OPCC)  – a cross-border initiative of climate change territorial cooperation including the Basque Government – and the partners of the European LIFE SIP Pyrenees4Clima project have produced the first monograph on the Climate Risks in the Pyrenees focused on wildfire risks. The document sets out 16 recommendations to trigger prevention and preparation to address the consequences of climate change, particularly wildfires and adverse natural phenomena in the Pyrenees.

The report wants to activate prevention and preparedness against a growing risk in this area of high-intensity forest fires

The report makes a joint and global call to all the public administrations, the media and citizens of the Pyrenean area to speed up the action to deal with the growing risks associated with climate change threatening mountain areas.

The Pyrenean Climate Change Observatory warns that the Pyrenees are facing a growing risk of serious wildfires, driven by higher temperatures, the greater frequency of droughts and heatwaves, along with changes in land use that have increased the accumulation of dead fuel and the continuity of woodland. Consequently, the report stresses the need to prioritise prevention over firefighting, by committing to management of the territory that makes the landscape less vulnerable and limits the conditions leading to major fires.

The Basque Government participates in the working community of the Pyrenees, together with Catalonia, Aragon, Navarre, New Aquitaine and Occitania, which promotes the Pyrenean Observatory of Climate Change

The OPCC stresses the importance of driving mosaic landscape management, bolstering the role of extensive livestock farming and fostering sustainable forestry management and adapted to climate change, based on more diverse and resilient forests, among its main recommendations. The document emphasises the recovery of traditional silvopasture practices and the need for the ecosystemic services of the mountain territories to be recognised; it also calls for cooperation among administrations, productive sectors and citizens for a coordinated approach to the growing risks from climate change in the Pyrenees.

Pyrenees4Clima Project

The Pyrenees4Clima project is being run by the scientific community, the regional administration, territorial managers and citizen associations of the Pyrenees. One of the main goals of this initiative is to provide effective responses to climate change risk situations that directly impact the natural ecosystems and human societies. Risks such as heat waves and flooding are increasingly more frequent and have direct consequences on the life of people and the global health of the ecosystems.

These recommendations have been developed within the framework of the European project LIFE SIP Pyrenees4Clima

The Pyrenees Climate Change Strategy (EPiCC) is the common framework to bolster the resilience of the Pyrenees approved by the four Pyrenean Autonomous Communities of Spain (Catalonia, Aragón, Navarre and the Basque Country), the two French regions (Nouvelle Aquitaine and Occitanie) and the Principality of Andorra. The strategy recognises the need to transfer and replicate inspiring examples that drive and generate climate change mitigation and adaptation actions in the Pyrenees. 

The Pyrenees4Clima partners provide key information on the current and future situation; roll out inspiring practices to create a climate services platform for droughts and extreme heat episodes, which provides useful real time information and which is accessible for the whole of society; make Prevention and Preparation recommendations to deal with major wildfires and adverse natural phenomena in the Pyrenees, such as prioritising mosaic landscapes and encouraging mixed woodland, in other words, an area where multiple types of ecosystems or habits co-exist to avoid high intensity fires. 

The climate situation of the Pyrenees has generated great media attention. Even so, the entities involved hope to have a greater impact on public policies to be able to be benchmarks in climate change and to have essential stakeholders in the territories when dealing with climate change.