The importance of mixed forests in Spain

Mixed forests increase in Spain to the detriment of single-species forests

According to research by the Complutense University of Madrid together with INIA-CSIC, the predominant forests in Spain are changing. For a long time, monospecific forests have been the majority in the Iberian Peninsula, as a consequence of activities such as forestry, agriculture and livestock farming. Due to the industrial transformations that have led to the abandonment of traditional farming, as well as the increase in extreme weather phenomena, mixed forests are regaining ground. In particular, events such as droughts and forest fires, caused by climate change, have contributed to changing this trend.

Information from the National Forest Inventory database, which details references from 1990 to the present, points to the Atlantic region as the area where the greatest changes are taking place. For example, pine monospecific forests used to be predominant, due to logging activities. However, now there are many forests where pine shares dominance with other hardwood species.

Researcher Laura Hernández (UCM, INIA-CSIC) told the SINC agency that, “new global change factors such as the increase in invasive species and extreme phenomena could upset this natural trend”. On the other hand, scientific studies show that mixed forests are more resilient to climate change. For this reason, at CO2 Revolution we try to give priority to heterogeneous forests where there is a diversity of both tree and shrub species.