Background Open pastoral habitats have important biodiversity richness – for instance, 81 priority bird species depend on them. However, at a European level, more than 60% of such habitats have been evaluated as having an “unfavourable” conservation status, making them some of the worst preserved. These habitats are semi-natural areas because they are made and maintained by agro-pastoral activities. In the Mediterranean regions, traditional 'extensive' farming practices are recognised as being the best tool for their management. However, current support tools for the management of open pastoral habitats are no longer sufficient to respond to a context that includes uncertainties about future agricultural policies, more biodiversity objectives and climate variability. Objectives The LIFE MIL’OUV project aims to contribute to enhancing the conservation status of open pastoral habitats in the Mediterranean region, by improving existing support tools for stockbreeders in order to change practices and better anticipate coming evolutions. To reach this goal, the project intends to implement eco-pastoral management to assure production, as well as good conservation of the habitats, by: Developing awareness about the importance of eco-pastoral management; Disseminating updated and validated support tools for management; and Helping farmers and managers to implement eco-pastoral management. All Mediterranean pastoral farming stakeholders will be encouraged to get involved: farmers and technicians who advise them, students and future farmers and technicians, as well as their teachers, elected representatives and other managers of nature areas, and administration representatives who are in charge of the legal framework. The project is planning to carry out 18 specific actions, divided into various tasks: Five actions covering project management and monitoring progress and one preparatory action: (i) to put together methods and tools to adapt the frame of references using a survey and a farm study, (ii) to validate these methods, tools, and adapted references, and (iii) to choose farms for the continuation of the project; Four communication and awareness actions to share and disseminate knowledge, through meetings with stakeholders (workshop, seminar) and media (technical and pedagogical booklets, book, videos etc); Three training actions for farmers, agricultural and nature area technicians, students, teachers, elected representatives and administration representatives; Two actions to follow-up the project’s impact on the environment and on the target audiences; and Five dissemination actions for the project results. Expected results: The project is expected to result in the following benefits: Guidelines for pastoral management, as well as methods and tools for attaining the objectives of good conservation of natural habitats and agricultural production, in a situation of climate variability; Dissemination of new guidelines, methods and tools for pastoral management to farmers and resulting in better knowledge of the problem and suitable recommendations (50% of the farmers of the studied farms); and adoption of these recommendations (30% of the farmers involved); Dissemination of the guidelines, methods and tools to other stakeholders, resulting in better knowledge of the problem and suitable responses (70% of the agricultural technicians targeted by the project; 70% of the natural area technicians targeted; 90% of students and teachers targeted; 70% of the elected representatives and administration representatives targeted); Integration of the knowledge of the work of the stakeholders targeted by the project (30% of the agricultural technicians who advise farmers; 50% of the natural area technicians; 70% of the teachers in the teaching modules; 30% of the elected representatives; and 30% of the administration representatives involved in the actions); and The implementation of suitable practices that result in an improvement in the conservation status ('average' to 'good', 'unfavourable' to 'good' or 'unfavourable' to 'average') of 100 ha of habitats of EU importance.