MONTCLIMA is an Interreg SUDOE project in which ten entities from this southwestern European territory will work together to study how to approach and establish a transnational strategy for the prevention and management of natural risks in mountain areas.

Until December 2021, this project will work to strengthen SUDOE territories through the transnational strategic framework, taking into account previous successful projects of prevention and management of fires, droughts, floods, landslides and erosion. The planned methodology envisages four major actions or working groups. Firstly, with the capitalisation of successful cases of forms of governance and practical initiatives for the prevention and management of natural risks. Secondly, with the design of a methodology for drawing up a transnational strategic framework for risk prevention and management in mountain areas of the SUDOE territory. Thirdly, by researching the transnational strategic framework in pilot territories suitable for these risks. And finally, with the dissemination of the results.

By reinforcing a risk-based approach to climate change, the MONTCLIMA project is aligned with international agreements such as the United Nations Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, to which this new project is closely linked, insofar as its promoters understand that mountain territories are very vulnerable to natural risks, and the SUDOE space is one of the areas of the world that suffers and will suffer most from the effects of climate change (IPCC, 2014).

In this sense, MONTCLIMA wants to focus on the fact that mountain areas are among the territories most affected by natural risks that are expected to increase due to the effects of climate change in the form of more severe droughts, higher temperatures, changes in the rainfall regime... These risks know no administrative limits, for example fires that cross borders of continuous forest stands, and need transnational coordination.

The MONTCLIMA project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Interreg SUDOE Programme and entities from Spain, France, Portugal and Andorra participate as partners: the Pyrenees Work Community Consortium (CTP), the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF), NEIKER - Basque Institute for Agricultural Research, the Cesefor Foundation, the Bragança Polytechnic Institute (IPB), Office National des Forêsts,  Geie Forespir, Centre d'Estudes et d'Expertise Sur Les Risques l'Environnment la Mobilisé et l'Amenagement (CEREMA), Instituto de Estudios Andorranos (IEA) and Comunidade Intermunicipal da Região de Leiria (CIMRL).