We invite you to visit our website www.maissolomaisvida.pt and get to know this project in the public presentation "Territorial Program +SOLO +VIDA and synergetic initiatives", on October 3rd, from 3:00 pm to 5:30 pm, at the Pavilhão Multiusos de Mértola. Entrance is free (consult the program here).
In addition to representatives from ADPM and Cooperativa Agrícola do Guadiana, Teresa Pinto Correia from the University of Évora and a technical team from the Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests will participate in the event. The guest speakers will present the results of projects and initiatives aimed at local farmers, with lines of action common to +SOLO +VIDA, including soil conservation, promotion of sustainable agriculture, regeneration of the cork oak forest and restoration of ecosystem habitats. The session ends with a tasting of regional products.
The Territorial Program +SOLO +VIDA started in July this year and will be presented to the public, on October 3, at 3 pm, in the Multipurpose Pavilion of Mértola.
The Territorial Program +SOLO +VIDA is looking for partner farmers to go into the field, put their hands in the earth! Directed to producers from Mértola and Serpa, municipalities covered by the natural area of the Guadiana Valley, this is a project that aims to sow a set of ten good practices with potential for replication. The actions are intended to recover fertility and productivity, in 94 hectares, in agrosilvopastoral farms in the Guadiana Valley Natural Park.
The goal is to harvest, decades later, a cork oak forest more resilient to desertification and the effects of climate change with a greater capacity to store organic carbon in the soil, through the design, implementation and evaluation of a territorial program, based on cooperation and sharing.
"This is a valuable opportunity for the territory of the Guadiana Valley Natural Park and, in particular, for the agrosilvopastoral farmers inserted in this protected area. We believe that by experiencing the application of this set of good practices, these important forgers of the landscape will witness and understand the advantages and economic gains for their farms. At the same time, they will realize the return in terms of productivity and appreciation of environmental services," says Maria Bastidas, coordinator of the project +SOLO +VIDA and technician at ADPM, the entity promoting the project.
Among the ten good agrosilvopastoral practices are, for example, the retention and conservation of water in the landscape, the restoration of water lines, the improvement of the Mediterranean mosaic, as well as the recovery of natural regeneration, the implementation of permanent pastures or the adaptive management of grazing.
The current president of the Cooperativa Agrícola do Guadiana, partner entity of the project, João Madeira, sees in the Territorial Program +SOLO +VIDA an opportunity for farmers of the PNVG. "The Guadiana Valley is a territory with high susceptibility to desertification and with this project, local farmers will know directly on their land the effects of soil protection and improvement, namely in the strengthening of agricultural systems," he highlights.
João Madeira, also a sheep producer and agricultural entrepreneur in the Mértola region, also explains that, "with these measures we intend to consolidate an agricultural sector capable of facing the climatic challenges we are facing and, thus, continue to ensure the fundamental role it plays in the maintenance of a territory full of natural values, but, at the same time, alive and humanized".
The project +SOLO +VIDA will allow to carry out a diagnosis of the main barriers to the adoption of good practices and develop a governance model to boost adaptation to climate change at the local level.