The Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge has initiated, within the framework of the Land Stewardship Platform (PCT), which coordinates the development of the 7th Inventory of land stewardship initiatives in Spain with the objective of diagnosing the current situation of this nature conservation tool in our country and updating its main data.

This inventory is the main source of information on land stewardship to know its scope and evolution, so it is a reference information base on the trajectory of land stewardship in Spain.

Following the publication of the last inventory in 2020, the process is now underway to have the more updated information on land stewardship entities and agreements in our country, as well as the incorporation of new organizations that have emerged thanks to the promotion of this conservation tool in recent years.

The most relevant new features of the 7th inventory include, on the one hand, the extension in time, from two to four years, so that the information will be updated from 2020 to 2023 inclusive. Geographic information will also be provided for each agreement, which will make it possible to obtain the mapping of custody in Spain.

On the other hand, the criterion of differentiating, through a specific form, the activity carried out by hunting entities in land stewardship is maintained. For this purpose, the results of the Hunting and Stewardship Working Group of the VI State Conference on Land Stewardship are used as a reference. All this is summarized in the publication “The role of hunting entities in land stewardship“.

Among the data from the last inventory, the total number of agreements, totaling 3,223, of which 123 corresponded to hunting entities, stands out. There were 245 entities with stewardship agreements, of which 27 were from the hunting sector. In addition, the 3,100 agreements, from 215 entities, cover a total of 577,915 hectares in land area.

These figures denote the value of stewardship in Spain for the conservation of natural heritage and biodiversity, as well as the importance of updating, improving and keeping this registry of entities and agreements up to date, in order to highlight this conservation tool.

To collaborate in the inventory process, interested entities can send an e-mail to custodiaterritorio@fundacion-biodiversidad.es, where the procedure to be followed in each case will be detailed.