25 octubre 2018

On 24th, 25th and 26th September 2018, the transnational workshop of the Open2preserve project was held in Roncesvalles (Navarra) and attended by 38 representatives from the 13 European partners entities of this project.

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During the meeting, the consortium proposed undertaking pilot experiences in areas of high protection value (Sites of Community Interest, Natural Parks and Biosphere Reserves) in Navarra, Andalusia, Catalonia, Galicia, Northern Portugal, Aquitania and Languedoc-Rosellón. These experiences will be based on a combination of guided herbivory (biological clearing) and initial techniques to reduce the accumulation of fuel through controlled burns. All the experiences seek to offer innovative regional solutions that guarantee their economic sustainability (biological clearings by indigenous breeds of equine and ovine livestock, local assessment of for high quality meat products, grazing companies, etc.), in order to ensure their feasibility and putting into practice beyond the lifetime of the project. The current problem is that “the reduction of grazing by herbivores due to the reduction of extensive livestock is especially affecting open spaces and natural pastures in particular, which is manifested in a rapid expansion of bushes and in extensive processes of natural forestation and the ground being covered in scrubland that sometimes cause a loss of biodiversity, the homogenisation of the landscape, an accumulation of plant fuel and an increase in the risk of  big fires, a high and permanent threat in the current scenario of climate change.”

The objective of this transnational workshop was the planning and convergence of the eight Pilot Experiences (PE), five with indigenous breeds of ovine livestock and three with indigenous breeds of equine livestock, which will be carried out for 24 months and will start in September 2018 and end in February 2021 in spaces with high natural value within the field of the SUDOE announcement. Navarra, through INTIA and UPNA, has a prior experience undertaken within the framework of the “Project for the demonstrative experience of exploitation and improvement of pasture areas in the north-west zone of Orreaga-Roncesvalles” funded by the PDR 2007-2013 programme. Furthermore, INTIA has the experimental estate of Roncesvalles as backup. The project is coordinated by UPNA and has a wide range of partners, comprising 13 beneficiary partners and 22 associates from three different countries (France, Spain and Portugal), which include universities, technological centres, foundations and other bodies. On the first day of the workshop, a visit to the pilot area in Navarra was led by José Luis Sáez and Luis Echeverría of INTIA, where they explained to attendees the importance of observing the peculiarities of each region when it comes to converging the pilot experiences and the results of the prior experience in the zone, by evidencing the favourable effect of the livestock staying after the burn and the clearings made. On the next working day, the partners shared ideas on the state-of-art, compiling the information existing in the last 30 years on natural space management with controlled burns, guided herbivory or both practices combined, in order to learn from successes and failures, identify pools of knowledge and prevent potential problems. A large part of the work also focused on the planning and start-up of the Pilot Experiences (PE), in which the following issues were addressed: the identification of breeds, ranches and censuses, as well as the identification of the protected zones in which the PE will be undertaken. The environmental and socioeconomic aspects that justify the selection of those Pilot Experience were also discussed, along with the hectares to be used (range of minimum and maximum surface areas), the burn plan and its characterisation: type of controlled burns, person executing them, grazing plan: guided grazing practices, fodder, required infrastructures, ICT testing protocol for guided grazing, the schedule of activities and the assignment of tasks and coordination among the partners involved in a region. To end the day, the minimum common denominators were established for what will be the PE follow-up protocols, with regard to environmental monitoring (vegetation and land) and the monitoring of livestock.

On the last working day of the Transnational Workshop, Cécile Aguerre of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques Chamber of Agriculture (France), presented the French context, which has very features from the other participating European regions. Finally, the workshop ended with the planning of the project actions foreseen for the coming months for the different partners

OPEN2PRESERVE

The project ‘Sustainable management model for the preservation of open mountain landscapes (OPEN2PRESERVE)’ led by the Public University of Navarra (UPNA) is financed by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) and will be executed during the next three years. It is the most costly European project financed by the Programming Committee of the Interreg Sudoe Programme in its second announcement.
The OPEN2PRESERVE project is carried out within the framework of the priority axis of the Interreg SUDOE Programme (“Protect the environment and promote efficacy of resources”) and within specific objective 02 (“Reinforce the cooperation of natural space managers in SUDOE through the execution and application of joint methods”).

Summary/main objective: To guarantee the preservation of ecosystem services and ecological quality of open mountains spaces through:
The creation of a management model for open spaces of high mountain value that is sustainable, transferrable and of common use for the SUDOE region.
To ensure the feasibility of the management model in the long term through the identification of innovative economic assessment solutions.

Representatives of the three European partner entities of the project from the three countries at the Navarra meeting:

UPNA (Spain)

Centro Tecnolóxico da Carne (CTC) (Spain)

Pyrénées-Atlantiques Chamber of Agriculture (France)

Zaidín Experimental Station (EEZ-CSIC) (Spain)

Instituto Politécnico de Bragança (IPB) (Portugal)

INTIA (Spain)

Autonomous Government of Andalusia (Spain)

Pau Costa Foundation (Spain)

Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) (Spain)

Santiago de Compostela University (Spain)

Universidade de Tras os Montes e Alto Douro UTAD (Portugal)

Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès (France)

Société d’Élevage des Pyrénées Orientales (SEPO) (France)

Execution period: 2018-2021