The Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has published the Report of the 6th Inventory of Land Stewardship Initiatives in Spain, which collects information on the agreements in force in 2018 and 2019. It is a census that has been carried out since 2008 and aims to collect the status and evolution of all stewardship initiatives.
Land stewardship is the set of strategies and instruments that support and guide landowners in the conservation and good use of natural, cultural and landscape resources. To achieve this, it promotes agreements and mechanisms for continuous collaboration between owners, custodian entities and other public and private agents.
The Inventory of Land Stewardship Initiatives in Spain is one of the fundamental products of the Land Stewardship Platform coordinated by the Biodiversity Foundation. It is the only source at the state level of information on stewardship entities and arrangements, thus becoming a key instrument for analysing the status and trend of this nature conservation tool.
A SYSTEM ON THE RISE
The use of these voluntary agreements has grown in recent years. The data collected in this 6th Inventory confirm the increase in both surface area and the number of land stewardship entities and agreements established for conservation. Thus, the land area dedicated to land stewardship amounts to 577,915 hectares (ha), which represents an increase of 56%. In this way, not only are the data collected in 2017 exceeded, but the largest extension has been reached since the Inventory began to be drawn up in 2008.
The number of institutions with custody agreements totalled 218, much higher than the 148 indicated in the previous edition, an increase of 47.3%. The number of custody agreements has grown substantially, reaching 3,100, thus exceeding the limit reached in 2015, when the total figure was 2,687. The net growth since 2017 has been 697 agreements, i.e. 29%.
The increase in agreements occurs in practically all autonomous communities, highlighting Aragon (147), Galicia (135) and the Region of Murcia (121). 73% of the agreements are on privately owned land, 15% on public property, 16% on communal ownership and 4% on public domain. The predominant land use is forestry (37%), followed by agriculture (13%), pastures (11%) and riverbanks and wetlands (6%).
Finally, land stewardship agreements established in Natura 2000 Network sites now total 38% in full and 8% partially.
INVENTORY IMPROVEMENTS
Some of the main novelties of the inventory compared to the previous version are the improvement in the characterisation of the habitat of the estates with agreements, the first pilot test for the use of indicators, the notable growth of stewardship in the Canary Islands and its reactivation in the Balearic archipelago, the incorporation of a considerable number of urban stewardship initiatives or a greater relative increase in the total number of stewardship entities.
PROPOSED STATE REGISTRATION MODEL
The formalisation of the administrative register of land stewardship initiatives in Spain has a specific section in the Inventory report, given its strategic importance and the relevant progress made for its implementation.
Spanish conservation regulations, specifically Law 42/2007, of 13 December, on Natural Heritage and Biodiversity, incorporate the concept of land stewardship and highlight the obligation of public administrations to promote it. Likewise, the Strategic Plan for Natural Heritage and Biodiversity (Royal Decree 1274/2011, of 16 September), expressly refers to the need to create a Register of custodial entities and to determine the typologies and conditions of entities and stewardship agreements and forms of concerted management.
For this reason, as indicated in the report of the 6th Inventory, the Biodiversity Foundation has launched a process to formalise an administrative register that will help to guarantee a legal, fiscal and financial framework for land stewardship agreements, provide support to land stewardship entities and give security to owners and effectiveness to land stewardship. thus increasing the solidity, maturity and visibility of the movement.
