The second meeting between the participants of the European projects LIFE in Common Land and LIFE Oreka Mendian took place in the Basque Country from 23 to 25 May. Both the Galician and Basque initiatives are co-financed by the European Union’s LIFE Programme, whose main objective is to “protect, conserve and improve Europe’s natural capital”.
The Basque hosts guided the visitors through three Red Natura 2000 sites: the Aizkorri-Aratz Natural Park, the Entzia SAC, and the Gorbeia Natural Park. The visit allowed them to learn first-hand about the management and conservation practices used in these mountain pastures. In addition to researchers and technicians from the UDC and USC, representatives from eight of the eleven Communities of Forestry collaborating in the Galician project attended(A Balsa, Cadramón, Frexulfe, Laxa Moura, Miñotos, Montoutoto, Santo Tomé de Recaré, and Vilacampa).
In a previous meeting, the LIFE in Common Land participants informed their counterparts from the Basque Country about their working methods in the Serra do Xistral (Lugo), the natural area where the project is being carried out, to conserve heathland and peat bogs, and the importance of wild horses for this purpose.
The aim of these exchanges is to get to know another way of managing livestock and the territory, learning from each other lessons that can be applied on a day-to-day basis, always adapting them to the environmental and administrative particularities of each area. Laura Lagos, a researcher in the BIOCOST group at the CICA of the UDC and a participant in the LIFE in Common Land project, believes that “the reciprocal learning that these trips have entailed can be translated into advances for both projects in habitat management, conservation, and restoration actions”.
The researcher highlights the spirit of pride shared by community members and farmers in “maintaining traditional activities on which the conservation of habitats protected at European level depends”. She is surprised to see that certain traditions still survive, such as “taking the herds up the mountain in summer, with the whole shepherd’s family moving to the “txabola” or “borda” (shack in English).
The LIFE in Common Land Project began in 2017, promoted by the Deputation of Lugo and supported by the USC and the UDC, whose participation is coordinated by Jaime Fagúndez from the BIOCOST group of the CICA. Its main objective is the conservation of priority habitats in the Serra do Xistral Natura Network area, an area of great ecological value affected by the abandonment of traditional land uses, the degradation of habitats linked to human activity and climate change, among other reasons.
CICA (Centro Interdisciplinar de Química e Bioloxía) was promoted by the University of A Coruña in 2015. It has more than 150 researchers organised into three scientific areas: i) Biomedicine, ii) Food, Pollution and Health and iii) Nanoscience and Advanced Materials. Research excellence, technology transfer and the transmission of knowledge to society form the three pillars on which the research centre is based. Proof of this are the projects shared with companies and the large number of dissemination actions carried out. The attraction of talent, the visibility of women scientists and gender equality are among its objectives, with a female presence of more than 50%.