Man has always modified the environment he lived on and therefore forest has been a key point of the land management strategy. According to the topographic/climate conditions in mountain areas, the preservation and enhancement of the protective role of forests against natural risks are the key drivers for the development of an efficient action plan for strengthening the liveability of the Alpine Space. Forests are so considered not only as primary production units serving particular interests but as heritage/cultural assets for the human society.
The 6 EU ministerial conferences on the protection of forest in Europe held since 1990, have all focused on the need of a common approach to valuation of Forest Ecosystems Services for developing a Sustainable Forest Management. SFM has to be based on the definition/prioritization of FES regarding the societal needs. If common indicators have been set up, none harmonised method and tools for FES mapping are currently available.
Coming up from this context and the capitalization of the knowledge gained in previous EU projects, ROCKtheALPS has for main objectives to provide the 1st AS regional rockfalls risk zoning tool, the 1st AS-wide harmonised map of protection forest against rockfalls, which represent the major threat to the alpine viability/liveability. This map is one of the missing jigsaw needed for enhancing the EU mountain forest policy. An interdisciplinary/transnational partnership has been set up with a 2.6 M€ ERDF budget.