This PRIMA project, focused on the adaptation and mitigation solutions to face climate change in the Mediterranean region brings together ten partners to create living labs to test and implement WEFE solutions.

The ten partners of the RES-MAB project have gathered in Solsona, Catalonia, at the headquarters of the Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia (CTFC) from July 22nd to 24th, 2024. During the meeting, participants discussed the challenges posed by climate change in the Mediterranean region, along with the consortium’s goal of implementing innovative solutions in the participating Biosphere Reserves (BRs).

RES-MAB is an ambitious initiative tackling climate change in the Mediterranean by focusing on UNESCO-designated Biosphere Reserves, crucial for balancing human activity with nature conservation. The project will establish seven BR demonstration sites, transforming them into "living laboratories" to test and implement innovative Water-Energy-Food-Ecosystems (WEFE) solutions. Adopting the WEFE Nexus approach, RES-MAB aims to foster resilience and enhance climate adaptation.

“RES-MAB is a pioneering and ambitious project within the PRIMA program that aims to provide solutions to the needs of Mediterranean BR in the face of climate change. With the holistic vision inherited from the WEFE approach, we want to develop a management model useful to all Mediterranean BR while also developing new business models and innovative market solutions suitable to the different demands the Mediterranean BR must respond. To do so, the consortium will take into consideration the cultural and ecologic aspects of the BR while still promoting the sustainable development of their economy,” explains Roser Maneja, coordinator of the project and Deputy Research director at the CTFC.

One of the central efforts of the project includes the development of a WEFE Nexus Socioecological Modelling Tool (WEFE-SEM Tool) to aid stakeholder decision-making, integrating this tool into policies for sustained impact, and co-creating and deploying eight climate-resilient WEFE solutions across the demonstration sites.

Other initiatives that will be launched by the project include recovering ancestral cultivation terraces as well as irrigation channels, or setting up a centre for food processing which will bring new opportunities to the rural community who will learn about sustainable production to achieve self-sufficiency.