Mountain juniper groves in Sierra Nevada are key elements of this habitat of Community interest 5120 (mountain Cytisus purgans formations). This habitat play a fundamental role in various processes and delivers services of high importance including soil stabilization, prevention of eroding processes, water regulation, nitrogen and carbon fixation, mobility of nutrients, biodiversity enhancement, pollination and improving the quality of grazing lands for livestock breeding.

This community and the ecosystem services it offers are nevertheless suffering a progressive deterioration due to the effects of climate change and the secular use of mountains. Climate change intensifies summer droughts and hinders the presence of appropriate places for the germination, establishment and survival of juniper seedlings.
The Life ADAPTAMED project will profit from traditional irrigation ditches and the presence of scrublands, which favour the protection of juniper trees. Traditional irrigation ditches in mountains distribute the water resources along the slopes and provide the humidity that juniper and other plant species need in their early stages of development. These ditches go across abandoned mountain arable lands that used to be occupied by juniper trees and could therefore be recolonized with the appropriate ecological conditions.

Furthermore, traditional irrigation ditches, whose origin goes as far as the Middle Ages, are one of the main distinguishing marks of Sierra Nevada and play an essential role in preserving biodiversity and a series of ecosystem services of huge relevance.

This project action will provide a practical case of restoration of the ecological function and the protection of ecosystem services through the support of traditional resource management elements and will have the participation of the irrigation communities and other local stakeholders.

More information: José Miguel Barea

Photo: Irrigation ditch course in Sierra Nevada nature area. © José Miguel Barea Azcón