First stakeholder workshop to discuss impacts of climate change on pastoral activities at Parc des Écrins
The Ecrins National Park (France) and the French National Institute for Agronomic Research (INRA) organized on February, 6th 2019 a participatory workshop on adaptation strategies of pastoral systems to climate change.
This workshop gathered together some twenty participants (local elected representatives, staff from protected areas and from conservation and farming organizations, farmers, researchers, etc.). Participants were invited to identify the main factors influencing local pastoral systems and to share their vision of the future and their local knowledge of the territory, in order to generate new, innovative and creative ideas.
The participants addressed and discussed the likely impacts of climate change on alpine pastures (rainfall, quality of grass, water scarcity), according to various climate change scenarios (global warming limited to +2°C above pre-industrial levels, or over+2°C), and raised economic and social issues, regarding in particular the evolution of mountain farming: what could be the future of mountain grazing systems, in a European and globalized context?
Discussions notably focused on the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the alpine economy’s increasing reliance on tourism, and wolf predation: all participants shared their vision of the future and their local knowledge, in relationship with adaptation strategies to climate change.
