This project aimed to increase the capacity of land stewardship entities to act, improving cohesion between them.

In 2015, the Territorial Stewardship Network (xct) launched the project “Improving the custody. Development of commitments towards quality standards of the territory. Phase 2”, an initiative benefiting from the 2014 call for grants whose objective was to increase the capacity of land stewardship entities, improving cohesion and alliance between them, through the application of good practice criteria that ensure quality land stewardship. This project gave continuity to an initiative of the entity that was a beneficiary in the 2013 call for grants.

As general objectives, the project sought to know the needs of land stewardship entities in the current context and provide them with resources for the development of their projects in a personalized way, in addition to activating a participatory methodology based on alliances for the implementation of the criteria of good land stewardship practices.

Through this project, the aim was to achieve an alliance of entities to implement good practices and work together towards a quality standard. On the other hand, the aim was to make the criteria of good practices, the alliance and the methodology known to all custody entities in the xct and the rest of Spain.

To this end, a series of actions were developed, such as visits to custodian entities to evaluate opportunities to intensify networking and interviews to detect needs and resources for quality and networking work, in addition to presenting the available resources to the entities so that they could develop their projects.

Several meetings were held with the working groups of the Network to improve cohesion and channel the use of good practices, as well as participation and promotion workshops in order to develop standards for the application of the good practice criteria. At the eighth meeting of the xct, the “Manual for the Implementation of Good Practices in the Management of Land Stewardship Initiatives” and other resources for entities were presented, in addition to the alliance project for work as stewardship entities. At the meeting, a participatory workshop also took place with the entities to set criteria and the methodology to be followed.

Within the framework of the project, the Network has prepared the “Guide to good practices for land stewardship entities” which includes a list of good practices in the management of land stewardship initiatives, the contents of which are summarised in the aforementioned manual.

To close the project, the entity organized the presentation and debate day “Towards a quality standard in land stewardship”, held on December 17, 2015 at the Eugenio Trías Municipal Library, in Madrid’s Retiro Park, in Madrid. Ignacio Torres, deputy director of projects at the Biodiversity Foundation, opened the speeches at the conference, which focused on the positive evolution of land stewardship in recent years and on the incorporation of new stewardship modalities that are destined to play an important role in the future, such as agricultural stewardship and, above all, marine custody and hunting custody.