Expansion of the climate refuge of the Plaça del Coneixement

The Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF) are jointly participating in the Uforest project, launched in 2021. The project, co-funded by the European Commission's Erasmus+ Programme, aims to promote Europe's innovation capacity among universities, cities and companies to offer a new approach to urban forestry. Among the project's actions, Uforest aims to create new urban forests in Brasov, Romania; Dublin, Ireland; Milan, Italy; and at the UAB.

Urban forests represent an extremely efficient solution to many of the environmental, social and health challenges related to urbanisation and climate change. They improve the resilience of cities, support biodiversity, and promote the overall health of their inhabitants. However, this “nature in a small pot”, as Joan Pino, lecturer in the Department of Animal Biology, Plant Biology and Ecology at the UAB, director of CREAF and promoter of the initiative, calls it, is fragile and particular. According to a study by the Uforest project, urban forestry faces major socio-environmental challenges, from harsh growing conditions to problems of social equity, which require innovative solutions.

The action, which is also part of the Healthy and Sustainable Campus programme of the UAB, will consist of planting an additional 30 trees and 50 shrubs in the UAB's Plaça del Coneixement and in the spaces surrounding the buildings of the square next November. These trees will be added to those already planted in the same area before the severe drought declared in our territory. The aim is to make the campus of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona more resistant to the effects of the climate crisis, such as heat waves and loss of biodiversity, by creating a climate shelter with species having low water needs and fruit production that can also be useful for the local fauna. In fact, the species selected for the campus (native Mediterranean tree and shrub species typical of Catalan forest ecosystems) attract pollinators and small birds. This initiative also aims to educate and raise community awareness about the importance of green spaces in urban environments.

The University of Padua's spin-off Etifor, a non-profit corporation partner of the project, has launched the WOWnature initiative, a web platform that offers the possibility to adopt the trees of the Uforest project that will be planted in autumn at the UAB's Plaça del Coneixement. The action can be carried out from the “Other campaigns” section of the UAB sponsorships website.