DR2 Extremadura (Spain)

Current status

Extremadura’s landscapes are dominated by dehesas. Their extension stretches along a third of Extremadura’s region, being the main forest type in the region. Dehesas have undergone profound changes in recent decades, either abandonment or intensification, which have compromised their environmental and economic viability. The increasing irregularity of rainfall has led to a loss of productivity and quality of the pasture, but also to advance of Phytophthora infection that causes the death of thousands of trees. These problems are common to all dehesa territories. 

There is a mismatch between challenges and solutions available for stakeholders of dehesas and similar agroforestry landscapes. This claims for innovative practices to improve dehesa sustainability in a context of increasingly harsh climate (drier and more unpredictable). The abandonment of traditional practices in many oak forestlands is resulting in fire-prone territories. The excessive encroachment of the woodlands entails also an increase in the dryness of the vegetation, which also favours the fire propagation, besides of decreased water yield at landscape and regional scales.