The working area of this project is the Serra de Tramuntana, located in Mallorca and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its natural and cultural richness. However, the interaction between nature and humans that exists in this territory, is today at risk. An economy overly focused on tourism and the high costs of production and distribution of local products, which result in low profitability, lead to the progressive disengagement of residents and visitors from the territory. The abandonment of agricultural farms by their owners due to the impossibility of taking care of them causes their transformation into forest areas, highlighting the connection between both agricultural and forestry management and contributing to the impoverishment of the territory.
It is in this context that the Ecoregion project was born, seeking to detect and respond to the needs related to the lack of management of the agricultural and forestal estates in the Serra de Tramuntana. In the first place, the project mainly focuses on seven of the municipalities that are within the territorial delimitation of the World Heritage by the Consortium, with the intention of being extended to the remaining municipalities in the future in the event of available funding.
The main objectives of the project are two:
To encourage farmers, citizens, companies, associations and public administrations to establish a collaborative strategy for the commercialization of products and the sustainable management of local resources, generating a system of governance towards food sovereignty.
Activate initiatives for the management and sustainable use of local forests that promote both the restoration of the mountain agroforestry landscape and the conservation of forest ecosystems.
The methodology followed for this project in the seven pioneering municipalities is the one that follows:
The first action was a participatory process promoted by Tramuntana XXI and SEAE (Spanish Society of Organic Agriculture), during which a series of meetings were held between key stakeholders of civil society, such as estate owners, commercialization and management companies and public entities. Throughout these meetings an action plan was drawn up to encourage the production and consumption of agri-food and organic zero-kilometer products, and the sustainable use of forest resources in order to encourage the management of these areas.
A series of interviews were conducted, separating between forestry management and agricultural management. Both were preceded by a previous step which consisted of a search process of the main companies and individuals involved in forest management, commercialization of forest resources and production and commercialization of local products.
-A total of 20 forest estate owners and 5 forestry service and forest resource commercialization companies were interviewed, in which the difficulties that these people face in their daily lives were discussed. Most of the interviewees were representatives of homeowners' associations and communities with a total of 200 homeowners. The total area of the forestry estates analyzed exceeds 2,600 ha. These interviews resulted in the creation of a catalog that collects the contact details of each forest estate and the municipality in which it is located. The catalog also contained information on whether forest management tasks are carried out on the farms and what use is made of the biomass extracted (self-consumption or commercialization of forest resources).
-Regarding the agricultural sector, in total, more than 150 interviews were conducted to the main restaurants, hotels and businesses committed to the commercialization of local products, as well as producers who, despite the difficulties, are still dedicated to cultivating the land and selling their products. Many of these individuals have organic production labels.This process also resulted in the creation of a local product consumption guide, which, in the same way as the forest management catalog, contained data such as contact information, location and typology of the products offered, among others.
Both documents seek to make visible and promote the commercialization of the products and services offered by these individuals and companies, and are available in both digital and physical formats.
Once these stakeholders were identified, the next step was to enhance coordination between these landowners and forest management companies by facilitating meetings between them and other non-profit organizations and competent public administrations, to explore partnerships for sustainable forest management. This process of seeking connections between owners resulted in the autonomous and organic creation of a new association of merchants in the territory, called "Conream Sa Serra". Support was also provided to municipalities for actions to facilitate the commercialization of local agricultural and forestry products.
The next action was aimed at providing training and capacity-building to private owners, in coordination with the competent administrations. Training sessions were provided by experts on the field on topics such as how to obtain subsidies, sustainable forestry, estate management and transition to organic farming. A forum on agro-ecology was also organized, bringing together experts to transfer knowledge and support the training of technicians in the design of local agro-ecological development plans.
In addition to the training process, the project also sought to provide material resources and infrastructure to facilitate the management of agricultural and forestry farms. Along these lines, the purchase of machinery (such as a bio-chipper) for joint use by the municipalities was proposed, which will not only enable better forest management but also the marketing of wood by-products that can be used as biofuel.Throughout the project, it was also carried out a citizen awareness campaign in which the most interesting profiles identified during the process were interviewed in a more personal way, The life stories of these people were shared periodically, using the Foundation's dissemination channels, to show how with their work they help to maintain and protect the cultural and natural landscape of the Serra de Tramuntana.
In parallel, the Foundation has a forestry advisory service for estates that can be offered to landowners within the Ecoregion project.
Budget
Funding for the first year of project implementation in the seven pioneer municipalities was obtained through a regional call for proposals on Participatory Local Development Strategies. We are currently waiting to find funding to carry out a follow-up in the municipalities where the Ecoregion process has already been implemented and to expand it to the remaining 12 municipalities of the Serra de Tramuntana, within a time horizon of 18 months. While the cost of the agricultural management part covers mainly the human resources and training sessions on the transition to organic farming, forest management also covers the advisory service in forest management over the 18 months (offered by the Foundation itself) and the purchase of machinery for shared use among all the landowners.
-Agricultural dynamization: 47,572.38 €:
-Forestry dynamization: 117,350.031 €
Link to the local product web source:
https://tramuntanaxxi.com/es/engegam-el-projecte-decoregio-serra-de-tramuntana