We present the LIFE STEWARDSHIP project to boost land stewardship
On Friday, the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO) presented a new project, co-financed by the European Union's LIFE Programme, aimed at promoting land stewardship as a social tool for nature conservation and restoration. We are talking about LIFE CUSTODIA. Environmental governance: an innovative mission to improve biodiversity conservation through land stewardship, developed within the framework of the European Biodiversity Strategy 2030, the new European Nature Restoration Regulation and international agreements, through innovation and collaboration between administrations, landowners or rights holders, companies, NGOs and other entities.
Coordinated by the Biodiversity Foundation of the MITECO, it features the participation of reference organisations linked to land stewardship, both nationally and internationally, and is financed by the European Union's LIFE Programme.
The partners are Eurosite, Forum of Land Stewardship Networks and Entities (FRECT), Global Nature Foundation (FGN), Fernando González Bernáldez Foundation/Europarc-Spain, SEO/BirdLife, and Nature Conservation Network (XCN). It has the financial contribution of the European Union's LIFE Programme and a total budget of €1.74 million, of which 60% is european funding.
The project was presented at the headquarters of the Biodiversity Foundation, in a meeting attended by the General Director of Biodiversity, Forests and Desertification of the MITECO, María Jesús Rodríguez de Sancho, and the Director of the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) of the European Commission, Paloma Aba. Representatives of public administrations, companies and other organisations of reference in the field of land stewardship, as well as the project partners, also participated.
These pillars will be reinforced by the design and development of a capacity building strategy, the creation of a national focal point on land stewardship and the dissemination of policies at EU level.LIFE Stewardship, which will run until September 2028, is based on three pillars: innovation, focusing on financial and social mechanisms and public policy development; mobilisation of funding, attracting private and public, European and national funds to scale up project results; and internationalisation, maximising the flow of innovation and transferability in land stewardship.
Reforzarán estos pilares el diseño y desarrollo de un plan de capacitación, la creación de un punto focal nacional de contacto sobre custodia del territorio y la divulgación de políticas a nivel de la Unión Europea.
ACTIONS AND EXPECTED RESULTS
Among the objectives of the project is to build new framework to expand public and private funding opportunities to support land stewardship in Spain and the rest of the European Union. This framework will include a collection of best practices and demonstrative innovations, especially in terms of innovative financing tools that can enable the development of conservation and restoration projects based on land stewardship strategies.
It is expected to reach at least 5,000 hectares of impact at the pilot scale through 25 demonstration projects using innovative financing mechanisms in, at least, 15 Spanish provinces. In addition, a participatory plan will be developed to promote land stewardship in public policies at local, regional and national level. In the private sector, work will be carried out to include land stewardship in the environmental and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies of companies. In the private sector, work will be carried out to include land stewardship in the environmental and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies of companies.
Actions will also be carried out to improve public information and legal certainty of stewardship agreements, the measurement of their impact on nature conservation and capacity building for their promotion, and the exchange of experiences between LIFE project partners and with other initiatives will be promoted, strengthening networking at the international level.
LAND STEWARDSHIP IN SPAIN
Land stewardship is positioned as a key tool for the conservation of habitats, ecosystems, species, landscapes and places of special value throughout the territory with the involvement of numerous public and private actors. Its great potential lies in the direct involvement of people and civil society to conserve and restore nature.
It brings together administrations, non-profit organisations, land and rights holders, universities and other institutions. And it does so on a voluntary basis, which makes it even more valuable. Increasingly more agents are promoting agreements and collaboration mechanisms to achieve a positive environmental, cultural, economic and social impact on their territory.
According to preliminary data from the latest Inventory of Land Stewardship Initiatives in Spain, which is being prepared by Biodiversity Foundation, there are 265 land stewardship organisations, and 4,500 agreements have been signed covering a total of 723,000 hectares of land area.
Land stewardship has been promoted in Spain for over 20 years and is included and protected in the Natural Heritage and Biodiversity Act. Since 2007 this tool has been promoted, among other initiatives, by the Platform for Land Stewardship (PCT in the Spanish acronym), created by the Biodiversity Foundation.
After these years of activity and work of the PCT, an assessment has been carried out and a PCT Strategy 2023-2027 has been drawn up, which includes 58 actions to improve and consolidate this key tool. Inspired by them and taking advantage of the support and willingness to participate of six national and international land stewardship organisations, the LIFE CUSTODIA project is commencing its work.