The adherence of the Barcelona Provincial Council to the local Strategy for adaptation to climate change is one of the topics highlighted in the latest BCN Smart Rural Press Digest. But there are others.
The Barcelona Provincial Council adheres to the local Strategy for adaptation to climate change
The Plenary Session of the Barcelona Provincial Council on February 25 approved the institutional declaration of adhesion to the local Strategy for adaptation to climate change promoted by the European Life Clinòmics project.
The declaration, which was ratified unanimously by all political groups, highlights the need to undertake adaptation measures and policies to reduce the impact of global change. Among other important aspects, the signatories of the pact undertake to contribute to the identification of the factors that determine the vulnerability of economic activities and the territories in which they are carried out, with actions such as the promotion of more agriculture and livestock. resilient in accordance with the new climate change scenarios to maintain the quality of production and food security, the promotion of forest management that increases the resistance and resilience of forest masses to climate change, increases their role in the cycle of water and contributes to the prevention of forest fires, while promoting the use of forest products.
Would you like to know more? Read the press release or download the Pact for Adaptation to Climate Change document.
This is how large companies distribute the bulk of European agricultural aid
A preliminary document from the European Parliament reveals that the main benefactors of aid from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) are large companies in the primary sector. Small farmers and environmentalists denounce that the European subsidy model is favouring the industrialization of land.
(Público)
These are the 50 companies that receive the most money from the Common Agricultural Policy
Business groups not directly linked to the countryside benefit from European aid totalling 5,000 million euros.
(El País)
The Ministry of Agriculture proposes cutting the basic CAP payment to beneficiaries who earn more than 60,000 euros so that more funds reach small producers.
(El País)
Agriculture reforms the distribution of European subsidies to make them more equal
The Ministry of Agriculture begins a process of convergence in the payment rights of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to reduce current differences: one farmer receives up to 23 times more than another for the same activity.
(El País)
The Generalitat gives the green light to the Strategic Food Plan of Catalonia 2021-2026
The Plan is a roadmap for a strategic sector of the country, which wants to build a sustainable, safe, resilient, healthy food system with universal access, which lays the foundations for the National Pact for Food in Catalonia.
(DARP)
The Metropolitan Area of Barcelona makes a firm commitment to sustainable food
The AMB has developed an Action Plan for Sustainable Food 2020-2023 and a guide so that municipalities can promote local actions and policies. Among other objectives, we want to promote zero-kilometre agricultural production, local commerce and infrastructure to create a sustainable and fair metropolitan food system.
(AMB)
The "Edible Cities" project of Sant Feliu de Llobregat celebrates the first days of reflection
The EdiCitNet project, financed by the European Union, was born to demonstrate that the implementation of non-ornamental green infrastructure can increase sustainable food production at a local level, as well as regenerate urban spaces, opting for an improvement in social inclusion. Sant Feliu is the only participating municipality in the Spanish state.
(Sostenible)
Three municipalities request the creation of a natural park in Alt Berguedà of about 40,000 hectares
The town councils of Cercs, Fígols and Vallcebre and the Berguedà Regional Council ask for the creation of a natural park in Alt Berguedà. It could occupy about 40,000 hectares and would include a good part of its municipal areas where protected species such as the capercaillie and the bearded vulture live. The space could occupy 40,000 hectares and would allow extensive livestock farming and new crops to be promoted.
(La Vanguardia)
The forestry work that has been carried out aims to improve the state of the mass and provide the forest with greater resistance to fires, in addition to reducing the possibility of forest fires, and, therefore, the release of all the CO2 retained in the trees back into the atmosphere. In addition, it has been possible to increase the CO2 retention capacity, since the trees that have been maintained are the ones that capture the greatest amount. Specifically, it is estimated that 160 tons of CO2 are fixed with this action.
(DARP)
With the main objective of maintaining the landscape quality and pasture spaces and promoting economic activity, the Montesquiu Castle Natural Park has maintained two lease contracts for the use of public agricultural properties for pastures for some years: Codines farm, dedicated mainly to hay meadows and horse pasture, and the Planeses, Solana and Casanova farms, dedicated to grazing a herd of Limousin cows. In the first, this spring he wants to start breeding mules.
(L'Informatiu dels Parcs)
Dog attacks on livestock are a frequent problem in Osona
Every year there are around twenty cases, especially in Montseny.
(Nació Digital)
The document plans to reach an annual consumption of 730,000 tons of biomass at the end of the period and to install equipment and boilers until reaching 844 MW of power. Since the implementation of the strategy in 2014, the consumption of this local renewable resource has increased by 81.6%.
(Catalan Energy Institute)
Six biomass facilities promoted by the Barcelona Provincial Council come into operation
Vilassar de Dalt, Argentona, Sant Fruitós de Bages, Santa Margarita de Montbui, Sant Martí Sarroca and Figaró-Montmany already heat some of their municipal facilities with forest chips, thus saving consumption of fossil fuels such as natural gas or propane. Six of the fourteen biomass boilers being installed by the Environmental Services Management of the Barcelona Provincial Council are already in operation.
(Sostenible)
Bages oils have the qualities to compete in competitions
An IRTA study establishes the criteria to identify the local Bages varieties and defines the potential of the oils produced in the region.
(Manresa Diari)
The Committee of the Regions proposes the 'Mediterranean Diet' label to address the Nutriscore
A label identifying food products belonging to the Mediterranean diet is the latest suggestion from the European Union regarding food labelling and is intended to address the negative effects caused by the Nutriscore scheme. The idea has come from the Committee of the Regions (CoR), an EU institution with an advisory role.
(Euroactiv)
The Eixarcolant Collective begins the commercialization of seeds of edible wild species
The project also includes traditional agricultural varieties and species traditionally used for ornamental purposes.
(Món Rural)
The Barcelona markets continue to focus on improving their equipment
The municipal accounts allocate 15.6 million euros to the city's markets.
(Barcelona's City Council)
Cultiva't, a Premià de Mar project so that children can get to know the land and its products
Through the project, and the participation of people knowledgeable about fieldwork, boys and girls can learn what the garden products are, how irrigation works, understand the seasonality of crops or get to work directly on the soil. , among other guided activities.
(Sostenible)
The deadline for submitting candidatures ends on April 15.
(DARP)
Depopulated Spain lost half of its economic and labour weight in seven decades
A study by Funcas analyzes the evolution of 23 provinces in the interior of seven autonomous communities.
(El País)
The solar 'boom' shoots up the prices of rural properties in Spain
The massive deployment of photovoltaic installations can multiply the rent of one hectare of crop fields by four.
(Expansión)
Lately, large photovoltaic or wind energy projects have been breaking out in numerous areas of the Catalan territory that can alter agricultural activity. In this environment, the Federation of Agrarian Cooperatives of Catalonia has adopted a decalogue that proposes 10 elements to take into account in government action regarding these initiatives.
(Federation of Agrarian Cooperatives of Catalonia)
Common front in Conca de Barberà to stop the “indiscriminate” avalanche of renewable energy projects
The mayors conspire before nine photovoltaic plants in the pipeline that affect 654 hectares of agricultural crops.
(Món Rural)
Neighbours of Prat de Llobregat plant a garden to stop a new urban plan
The activists of the environmental platform 'Ni un pam de terra' (in English, 'Not an inch of land') organize an agroecological space in Camp de la Bunyola, on agricultural land threatened by the start of works on the second phase of the Prat Sud Strategic Residential Area.
(Directa)
David Segarra: "We must talk about the history of those who are feeding society"
Interview with Valencian journalist and documentary filmmaker David Segarra. Involved with the movements in defence of the Valencian garden, he has made a series of documentaries in which he gives voice to the protagonists of a protective and vindictive struggle.
(La Conca 5.1)
Gemma Francés and Anaïs Sastre: How to produce food within large metropolises?
Interview with Gemma Francès, manager of the Baix Llobregat Agrarian Park Consortium, and Anaïs Sastre, one of the members of the Arran de Terra cooperative and promoter of a project that promotes the agroecological transition to the Sierra de Collserola Natural Park.
(El Crític)
Founder of the Unió de Pagesos, Lluís Parés Ramoneda was born in Sant Boi de Llobregat in 1946 into a family of farmers expropriated of their land at the end of the civil war and has lived his entire life in the garden.
(El Llobregat)
Josep Maria Espelta has been a doctor in Biological Sciences and a CREAF researcher since 1998. In this interview, he brings to the table the great complexity of forests, their role in the context of climate change and some of the debates on how to manage them.
(Sostenible)
Martí Boada: "The environmental fight is also a social and political fight"
A reference in the field of environmental education and a prestigious expert who is part of the United Nations Environment Program, Martí Boada demands commitment and a critical spirit to subvert the ways humans relate to the planet.
(La República)
Sustainable food or food resilience?
The coordinator of the BCN Smart Rural strategy and head of the Support Unit for agricultural spaces in the Barcelona Provincial Council reflects in the supplement of La Vanguardia, 'El món de demà', about the importance of finding new forms of relationship between the city and its agricultural space. Sònia Callau explains that only from a symbiotic relationship between food producers and consumers will territorial balance and food sovereignty be achieved.
(El mon de demà)
According to the MAPA report, the ecological surface area registered in 2019 was 2.35 million hectares, 4.44% more than in 2018, and the qualified area (already registered and certified as ecological) reached 2.01 million. Thus, the ecological area registered in Spain reaches 9.29% of the useful agricultural area (UAA). Another indicator worth highlighting is the 7.7% increase in the consumption of organic foods.
(Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food)
More than 50% of Europe's forest biomass could be lost in a few decades
More than half of Europe's forest biomass could be lost in a few decades due to natural disturbances caused by climate change, according to a study led by the Joint Research Center of the European Commission, with the participation of the Image Processing Laboratory of the University of Valencia, the Max Planck Institute, the University of Florence and the University of Helsinki.
(Nature)
The increase in temperatures and the decrease in rainfall suggest a scenario with less access to fresh water, increased risk of fire, droughts and a strong impact on the primary sector and the most populated cities. The report is available at this link.
(MedEcc)
Does having a diverse forest make a forest more resilient? According to a study with the participation of Núria Aquilué, CTFC researcher in the Joint Research Unit In Forest CREAF-CTFC, rather than focusing on having many different species, it is necessary to ensure that a forest has very different species in terms of their growth capacity, survival and reproduction, or various characteristics such as average height, seed size or drought tolerance. The results have been published in the scientific journal “Forest Ecology and Management”.
(Sostenible)
The report concludes that the action of the Common Agricultural Policy in supporting balanced territorial development varies according to the characteristics of the rural region and the combination of policies applied.
(Publications Office of the European Union)
Women represent around 40% of all workers in the agri-food sector
A study commissioned by the Department of Agriculture at the University of Girona describes and analyzes the situation of women in the food industry in Catalonia. Among other indicators, the study highlights that women earn 23.19% less than men on average.
(DARP)
An OECD study studies concentration and market power in the food chain
A paper from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) reviews available evidence on competition in agri-food chains, with a particular focus on whether downstream actors in the food chain exploit buyer power at the expense of farmers. According to the author, current evidence does not support the claim that the strongest actors in the chain systematically abuse their strongest position at the expense of farmers.
(Library of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development)
The authors of this report commissioned by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) say that bold policy-making can open a path towards achieving sustainable development goals in 2030 and a carbon-neutral world in 2050, bending the curve of biodiversity loss, and curbing pollution and waste.
(United Nations Environment Programme)
Water and agriculture: towards sustainable solutions
This report from the European Environment Agency evaluates management strategies for the water-agriculture-food system and points out what to do to reduce agricultural pressures on water and improve environmental outcomes.
(European Environment Agency)
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