Representatives from the 34 partners of DesirMED Consortium gathered between 25-27 February in Valencia for their General Assembly. The DesirMED Adaptation Day was also held back-to-back with the annual assembly. 

The first day of the event was mainly focused on the project progress so far.

Vicente Martínez Mus, Regional Minister of Environment, Infrastructure and Territories (Valencia) opened the day welcoming the audience and underlining the need to adapt to climate change.

Elisa Furlan (CMCC), project coordinator, presented several main achievements of the project such as the successful organization of the first iteration of regional workshops that led to the definition of the regional visions and pathways towards transformation.

A session focused on the different project work packages activities coordinated by project partners.

Participants had the opportunity to walk through and learn from a poster exhibition focusing on each DesirMED region, highlighting the climate hazards, the socioeconomic context and the NbS planned within DesirMED.

The first day closed with a session reflecting on the regional workshops held in DesirMED regions. The participants split into groups and commented on the main takeaways and lessons learnt by the workshops. 

The second Assembly day began with an inspiring speech by Samira Khodayar Pardo, Head of the Meteorology and Climatology Department at the Mediterranean Center for Environmental Studies (CEAM). She emphasized the dramatic impacts of climate change; Heatwaves and droughts are expected to lengthen, increasing wildfire risks, and autumn rainfall will intensify, resulting in still more severe flooding. She warns that temperatures could rise by over 2°C in the next decade and by more than 5°C by the end of the century. Even if emissions were cut to zero today, the damage already done would persist.

In following sessions, EU projects relevant to DesirMED thematic areas were presented, i.e., NBRACER, TRANSFORMAR, TRANSEATION and BlueGreen Governance projects shared their activities enabling cross-fertilizations among the involved actors. 

In the same morning, participants engaged in parallel workshops designed to deepen expertise and co-develop solutions in critical areas:

🔹 Regional governance schemes for climate resilience – exploring policy frameworks and institutional mechanisms that support effective climate action.

🔹 Financial schemes for Nature-based Solutions (NbS) – identifying innovative funding models and investment pathways to scale up nature-based solutions.

🔹 Advancing Climate Adaptation and Resilience through Transformational Governance – discussing how systemic governance shifts can drive long-term adaptation.

🔹 Technical workshops on monitoring, data analysis, and the IUCN NbS Standard – enhancing capacities for evidence-based decision-making and project evaluation.

On the second day of the General Assembly, participants visited "La Devesa del Saler" Natural Park to learn about wildfire prevention strategies, especially for protecting the wildland-urban interface. The Servei de Prevenció d’Incendis Forestals-Generalitat Valenciana and VAERSA demonstrated their fire prevention technologies, including a sensory network for weather monitoring, continuous fuel moisture content protocols, and a Wildfire Special Mobile Unit for early detection and rapid response. Medi XXI GSA showcased their active defense tool for WUI areas, which involves creating green firebreaks through prescribed irrigation. On high-risk wildfire days, sprinkler towers automatically activate to moisten vegetation, reducing fire risk. This system uses data from meteorological and soil moisture sensors and supports emergency services during wildfires. The technology is complemented by vegetation management and local citizen training in emergency and self-protection.

The DesirMED Adaptation Day at the end of the Assembly included field visits with group exchanges and capacity building activities. The project partners went back to El Saler natural park, to La Devesa beach where dunes restoration and sand nourishment actions are implemented to fight coastal erosion, and could get to know the Tancat de L'Illa Wetlands in Albufera de Valencia, artificial wetlands developed for restoring water quality and ecosystems. 

The Adaptation day capacity building session, in response to the Regions’ request to learn from other case studies around the world, provided highlights on 4 IUCN NbS best practice examples. The cases were focused on:

• Network grazing for fighting wildfires in La Rioja, Spain
• Coastal dune restoration in Catalonia implemented under the Impetus project
• Integrated water resources management through NbS in Sebeya catchment in Rwanda
• Ecosystem Restoration to prevent natural risks and enhance ecosystem services in New Caledonia, Island

Working group discussions on these cases followed to further reflect on the key success factors of these projects as well as a more thorough analysis for regional implementation and replication opportunities by DesirMED regions.