Line of action:

Drivers of biodiversity loss

Status:

Finalizado

Execution date:

2023

Total budget:

189.290,71 €

Amount of aid from the Biodiversity Foundation:

151.432,57 €

Soil and water management and biodiversity conservation are essential pillars for adaptation to climate change in Spanish agricultural and livestock farms.

With the new reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP 2023-2027), Member States must set out the details of their interventions through a strategic plan. The measures in favor of climate and the environment in the Strategic Plan for the CAP in Spain (PEPAC) include the eco-regime for plant cover in woody crops. The experience that UPA has acquired during the period of explanation of the new CAP is that this eco-regime is the least accepted by farmers.

The more than five million hectares of woody crops, highly exposed to the effects of climate change, require the use of scientific knowledge and pedagogical strategies to strengthen the implementation of vegetation covers.

Therefore, it is urgent to design a communication, training and counseling plan based on knowledge to overcome the barriers that currently exist in the sector for the implementation of this measure.

The main objective is to promote and evaluate, through scientific knowledge, the use of cover crops in woody crops as a measure of adaptation to climate change.

It has the following specific goals:

• Identification of barriers to the implementation of the eco-regime of vegetative covers in woody crops.
• Design an action plan to promote its implementation.
• Evaluate vegetation covers as a measure for adaptation to climate change.

• Organization of working groups with farmers and technicians to identify barriers, difficulties and problems for the implementation of cover crops in woody crops.
• Creation of a scientific-advisory committee.
• Bibliographic review related to the scope of the project, with the aim of expanding current knowledge and detecting possible future lines of work.
• Establishment of a network of experimental farms, with the integration of knowledge and the mobilization of stakeholders, from scientists to end users.
• Selection of demonstration farms managed by farmers who have adopted adaptation measures, in order to promote the training progress of farmers and their relationship with the lines of action of the CAP Strategic Plan for Spain.
• Training for UPA technical personnel.
• Conducting training sessions, both in the network of demonstration farms with the different categories of woody crops present in the Iberian Peninsula, and in areas with different agro-climatic conditions.
• Design of a demonstration module that can be used by third parties and whose purpose is to help understand the role of vegetation covers in reducing erosion and increasing soil carbon. All of this is accompanied by explanatory videos.
• Publication of a practical guide addressing the challenges/difficulties for the implementation and management of green roofs.
• Minimize Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, effectively contributing to the fulfillment of the national objectives of the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNIEC).
• Increase the carbon sink capacity of soil, woody crops and forestry systems.
• Increase the biodiversity of agricultural soils.
• Dissemination and communication of the project.

• A bibliographic review of 151 existing publications in Spain related to vegetation covers has been carried out.
• A network of 23 experimental farms from different research centres has been established that have been following the evolution of the roofs.
• A network of 7 demonstration farms was established through collaboration with 7 farmers in order to be able to take samples of their plots with plant covers and also to be able to be visited in training activities.
• A training course was held for 20 UPA technicians from the 7 autonomous communities where the project has been carried out, who subsequently gave 16 information days to more than 260 farmers.
• Preparation of a practical guide on vegetation cover (types, implementation, management, costs, in the three types of woody crops object of the project).
• A demonstration module (report and explanatory video) has been carried out on the effect of vegetation cover on erosion and another related to the importance of vegetation cover in carbon sequestration and soil stability.