Desbosiguem!

At a time when both sides of the Pyrenees suffer from agricultural abandonment and rural depopulation, as well as being subjected to climate change, issues such as wildfire risk management, biodiversity preservation, and the rational use of pastoral and forestry resources have become critically important. Desbosiguem! seeks to combine the experience of Andorra and Spain in managing unproductive environments with France’s experience in restoring and maintaining these areas through grazing, aiming to develop integrated solutions for landscape reopening, pasture recovery, and wildfire risk mitigation.

The objective of Desbosiguem! is to support managers of these rural areas (natural parks, public organisations, residents) by providing them with two fire simulation models to facilitate preventive measures, as well as two technical guides for the reopening of unused land and maintenance of open spaces (using techniques such as shrub clearing, silvopasture, and prescribed burns).

To achieve this, the project will focus on three main areas:

1. Analysing, at a landscape scale, the forest fire regime on both sides of the central Pyrenees, assessing its impact on the environment and human societies, and designing a cross-border adaptation strategy.

2. Identifying the different methods for reopening fallows, reducing forest fuel loads, and maintaining forests and grasslands, based on eleven pilot projects that represent the diversity of mountain and valley landscapes in the Pyrenean Park of the Three Nations.

3. Designing a decision-making toolkit for restoration actions in areas overgrown with vegetation or for fire prevention, and improving the skills of professionals involved in rural area maintenance.

The project is co-financed at 65% by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the INTERREG VI-A Spain-France-Andorra (POCTEFA) 2021-2027 programme, with a total budget of 638,952.27 euros.

Coordinated by the Centre de Formation Professionnelle et de Promotion de l'Agriculture Ariège-Comminges, Desbosiguem! is carried out in collaboration with the Parc Naturel des Pyrénées Ariégeoises, the Union des Collectivités Forestières d'Occitanie, the Pau Costa Foundation, the Parc Natural del Alt Pireneu, the Pireneu Agricultural School, the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, and the Andorra Research and Innovation Foundation.