Climate variability and land-use modifications are among the main components of global change, but their combined effects on forests have rarely been addressed. Relict tree species from the Mediterranean Basin are appropriate experimental models to investigate these effects since they grow in climatically-stressed areas, which have undergone intensive land-use changes. We hypothesize that intense logging and overgrazing could be related to forests decline, but also the abandonment of traditional land-use practices and subsequent enhancement of density-dependent factors acted as a predisposing stressor that modified the response of several tree species from the Mediterranean Basin to recent climate change. We summarize results from current forest structure and mortality patterns, as well as relationships between tree radial-growth and regional climatic trends in four tree species from western Mediterranean Mountains: Silver fir (Abies alba) from the North of Spain, Pinsapo fir (Abies pinsapo) from south Spain, European black pine (Pinus nigra ssp. salzmannii) from south-east Spain, and Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica) from north Morocco. Regional warming and a long-term decrease in precipitation were recorded over the second half of the 20th century. Moreover, an increase in the variability of local year-to-year precipitation patterns was recorded in the study area, beginning in the 1980s. At the low-elevation sites tree mortality were higher than in the high-elevation sites. Radial growth began to decline in the early 1980s in the four studied species. A sharp growth reduction occurred in extreme drought events but less growth decline was observed at the highest/moister sites. Climatic variability showed a significant effect in the four tree species, however it could not fully account for this growth decline. Our results suggest that human use may enhance (or mitigate) the vulnerability of relict Mediterranean tree species to climate change.