EFC WPMMW

Working Groups

Soil and biodiversity conservation, water management, restoration of degraded lands, protective forest management and torrent-control in mountain watersheds are important challenges which require the collaboration of all the actors involved in the rational utilization of soil and water resources. The Working Party on the Management of Mountain Watersheds brings European mountain stakeholders together to promote sustainable development in mountain watersheds and the rational utilization of soil and water resources.

The Working Party is continuously working to shape and react to emerging issues of global importance, maintaining an active reflection on the relevance and impacts of its activities. It established two Working Groups in 2011 that work on: Forest & Water, and Hazards and Disaster Risk Mangement in Mountains. In 2019 the Working Group 3: Protective Function of Forests was established.

Future events

TBD

Previous session

32nd session of the EFC Working Party on Management of Mountain Watersheds

Protection forests in European mountain regions

25-27 September 2019 | Innsbruck, Austria

The session focused on the protective functions of forests in mountain watersheds in a changing climate. Forests provide many services; some of these are protective functions that are important for humans and the environment. Mountain forests indeed play an important role in actively protecting from avalanche detachment, hindering landslides, stopping rockfall, preventing erosion and reducing runoff through deep soil formation. The aim of the session was to gather and share different experiences and impacts of protective forests in a changing climate. A field excursion was organized to the Alpine Stubai Valley.