- The 7th Inventory of Land Stewardship Initiatives in Spain (2020-2023) collects the most recent data on this nature conservation and restoration tool in our country
- Since the previous publication in 2019, there has been a significant increase in both the number of agreements and the entities that promote them, 268, and the area it covers, which already exceeds 700,000 hectares
- It is prepared by the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge through the Land Stewardship Platform
The 7th Inventory of Land Stewardship Initiatives in Spain (2020-2023), prepared by the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) through the Land Stewardship Platform, highlights the rise of this nature conservation and restoration tool in our country. The most recent data available show a significant increase in the number of voluntary agreements, as well as in the entities that promote them and the territory they cover.
Specifically, the 4,632 agreements in force until 2023 represent an increase of 49% compared to the 3,100 registered in the previous inventory of 2019, with 1,688 new agreements. One of the strengths of this conservation tool is that the agreements are voluntary. They are promoted by non-profit organisations, whose number has also risen to 268, compared to 218 in 2019, which represents an increase of 23%.
As for the total area under land stewardship agreements, it covers 708,191 hectares, which also represents an increase of 23% compared to the previous period. This territory is equivalent to 1.4% of the country’s surface.
The growth of land stewardship in Spain is the result of the momentum generated over decades as a key instrument for the conservation of habitats, ecosystems, species, landscapes and places of special value throughout the territory. Its great potential is the direct involvement of people and civil society to conserve and recover nature. It brings together administrations, land owners, companies, universities, NGOs and other entities. And it does so from a voluntary approach, which gives it even greater value.
In fact, like the previous ones, the 7th inventory of stewardship initiatives has been possible thanks to the voluntary submission of information on their agreements by the entities and the collaboration of the regional stewardship networks.
The custodian entities are mostly associations (63%), followed by foundations (17%) and public entities (13%). They are distributed throughout the national territory, with a greater presence in Catalonia (28% of the total number of entities), the Canary Islands (13%) and Andalusia (10%). However, all the autonomous communities have custody agreements.
The predominant land use in the stewardship agreements continues to be forestry (35% of the agreements and 37% of the area), followed by agriculture (32% of the agreements and 11% of the area).
With regard to land ownership, 79% of the agreements are developed on private property, 17% on publicly owned land and 4% on communal properties. By area, 61% corresponds to private farms, 23% to public and 16% to communal farms.
CONSERVATION OBJECTIVES AND SOURCES OF FUNDING
In terms of conservation objectives, the conservation of habitats (43% of the agreements, 52% of the area), ecological systems (41% of the agreements, 52% of the area) and species (36% of the agreements, 78% of the area) stand out. The main strategies employed include habitat restoration (40% of agreements), maintaining traditional land management (28%) and promoting drought-resilient systems (22%).
Agreements located in Natura 2000 Network areas represent 51% of the total, and cover 57% of the land area under custody.
With regard to sources of financing, 20% of the agreements are supported exclusively by private financing, 17% by public financing and 12% by mixed financing.
IMPROVEMENT IN INVENTORY METHODOLOGY
The Biodiversity Foundation, through the Land Stewardship Platform (an initiative it coordinates), has been publishing the Inventory of Land Stewardship Initiatives in Spain since 2008, with the aim of collecting the status and evolution of all land stewardship initiatives developed in the country, as well as information on the entities that develop them.
Since its inception, inventories have been published in 2010, 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019. The 7th Inventory collects data for the first time from a period of four years (2020-2023) instead of two, following the recommendations of the Participation Committee of the Land Stewardship Platform.
Another new feature is the improvement of the characterisation of the conservation objectives of the agreements, placing special emphasis on the identification of the species and habitats to be conserved. Georeferencing has also been achieved for almost 70% of the initiatives and data has been obtained on new parameters, including sources of financing used in the agreements, products and services derived from the farms in custody and the existence of management plans, among others.
LIFE CUSTODY
In recent years, Spain has given a great boost to land stewardship. In addition to the actions of the Land Stewardship Platform, new European initiatives and projects have been launched, such as the LIFE CUSTODY. Environmental governance: an innovative mission to improve biodiversity conservation through land stewardship .
From October 2024 to 2028, the MITECO Biodiversity Foundation will coordinate this project, whose main objective is to promote land stewardship as a tool for nature conservation through innovation and collaboration between administrations, land ownership, companies, NGOs and other entities.
Co-financed by the LIFE Programme of the European Union, Eurosite, the Forum of Networks and Entities of Land Stewardship, the Global Nature Foundation, the Fernando González Bernáldez/ Europarc-Spain Foundation (FUNGOBE), SEO/BirdLife and the Network for the Conservation of Nature participate as partners.
