Inspira Territorio - Spain

Main goals of the project

To promote a local agroecological transition of the whole agri-food system, with a special focus on improving supply chains through public infrastructure for artisanal food transformation by small-scale farmers, as well as chestnut production.

Overview

The project is coordinated by an alliance of local civil society organisations, small companies, the local development group and public administrations such as municipalities and the regional agricultural office in the Sierra de Aracena (Huelva, region of Andalusia, southwest of Spain).

The Sierra de Aracena has a long history of mountain, low-input, diversified, small-scale farming and strong rural communities with a rich local society and cultural heritage around agrarian traditions.

Small-holder farmers combine livestock and arable farming, producing food primarily for their own consumption, except for chestnuts and Iberian pig products, which are larger exported. Agroforestry landscapes of holm and cork oaks, chestnut trees and olive yards, dominate the cultural landscape.

More recently however, numbers of farmers have been in decline. Climate change, resulting in increasingly hight temperatures and longer and more severe drought periods, are affecting soils and trees. There has also been tensions between small-scale farming and other land-uses such incoming industries, conservation policies and tourism.

Through a diverse community with a strong sense of ownership and collaborative spirit, the Inspira Territorio alliance aims to weave together again people and the environment, to restore local pride for the land and the local food, to hybridize local ecological knowledge and agroecological innovations for a lively and more resilient Sierra de Aracena. 

Innovation Hub facilitator: Elisa Oteros-Rozas