CREAF and UCM Teams Visit the Pedroches Region to Launch the Andalucía Living Lab

In February 2022 members of the UCM and CREAF teams traveled to the region of Los Pedroches and to the Cazorla National Park, in south-central Spain to meet with some key stakeholders and launch the Andalucía Living Lab. The Andalucía living lab focuses on the Pedroches region, located in the north of the province of Córdoba, in Andalusia, Spain. The main economic sector in the region is agriculture, extensive livestock farming, and agro-industry. These economic activities are highly vulnerable to droughts and other climate-related hazards.

The coexistence of a great diversity of landscapes and land-use systems, including the dehesa and the agro-ecosystems of the sierra olive groves which are of great ecological and socio-cultural value, and the Sierra de Cardeña and Montoro Natural Park, together with their vulnerability to the processes of climate change and the consequent hydro-climatic risks, make the Los Pedroches region an ideal place for the development of the I-CISK project.

Stakeholders in the Andalucía Living Lab include local olive oil and livestock product cooperatives, a rural development organization, river basin agencies, natural park managers, and research and outreach organizations working on agricultural production and climatic risks in Andalucía. The living lab will work collaboratively to develop temporally and spatially adjusted climate services that have been identified as necessary to inform decision-making in agricultural and livestock production processes and forest management practices.

A first LL workshop is planned for October 2022 in order to further characterize and prioritize the identified climate service needs and develop a common work plan.