Ana Leiva, director of the Biodiversity Foundation, participated today, together with the president of the Provincial Council of Segovia, Javier Santamaría, and the deputy for Rural Development and the Environment, José Martín, in the opening of the conference of the project “Environmental impact in the management of slurry and poultry manure”, which will be developed throughout 2010.

The conference was aimed at the mayors of the 70 municipalities involved in this project, located mainly in the province of Segovia, but which also cover areas of the provinces of Valladolid and Palencia, as well as the Tauste region, in the Community of Aragon. This meeting presents the actions that will be developed in their municipalities within the framework of this initiative of the Provincial Council of Segovia, which has the collaboration of the Biodiversity Foundation.

The general objective of the project is to reduce the environmental impact of this waste on water, soil and air, through the dissemination among farmers and livestock breeders of greater information on the use of innovative and efficient management systems for slurry and poultry manure in livestock and poultry farms.

Thus, the initiative consists of transferring to rural workers successful experiences in three key points of livestock waste management: slurry management within the farm itself; slurry management from the point of view of collective management in a given region, and management of livestock waste from poultry farming.

The actions include the holding of technical-informative conferences on slurry treatment systems (in collaboration with the Agricultural Technological Institute of Castilla y León and the Environmental Development Society of Aragon), edition of support material, technical visits to manure, slurry and poultry manure treatment plants, technical advice, interviews with farmers and ranchers in order to draw up fertilization plans, and the evaluation of different alternatives for joint management of slurry, among others.
In this way, the Biodiversity Foundation and the Provincial Council of Segovia want to contribute to reducing water pollution by nitrates, stopping erosion, controlling emissions into the atmosphere and, in short, promoting sustainable and participatory management in the agricultural and livestock sector.