Field testing Málaga’s agricultural heritage site to diagnose the impact on biodiversity, as living and evolving laboratories of sustainable agriculture

For centuries, diverse agrifood systems and landscapes have been created across the world, reflecting the evolution of human beings and building on local biodiversity, knowledge, traditions and experiences in combination with the complexity of relationships with nature and ecosystems. However, these traditional systems and landscapes have been endangered by various challenges posed by rapid changes in our world.

In line with the Regional action plan on mainstreaming biodiversity across agricultural sectors, the FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia has collaborated with the World Biodiversity Association to conduct field testing on the biodiversity, vulnerability and resilience of the Málaga raisin production system in La Axarquía, a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) site since 2017 that links landscape structures, agrifood systems studies, social roles and biodiversity conservation.

The main objective of the field testing was to verify the applicability of the Biodiversity Friend Indexes and the Landscape Assessment Protocol as methodological approaches to evaluating the impact of agricultural activities of GIAHS sites on the conservation status of biodiversity within the cultivated areas. The field testing also served to evaluate the landscape and its conservation and contribution to landscape connectivity in the context of one particular GIAHS site in Spain.

According to technical experts, traditional viticulture has proven to be an environmentally sustainable activity where biodiversity remains a substantial element and where it retains a level of complexity that guarantees functional ecosystem services. However, as the field testing showed, negative demographic and socioeconomic trends contribute greatly to vulnerability in terms of the sustainability of agricultural activities and their capability to adapt and respond to adverse climatic events and climate change, combined with the abandonment of traditional viticulture, the progressive substitution of vineyards and olive and almond plantations with other more profitable crops (such as avocado), and progressive environmental fragmentation.

Centuries of farming point to the future for sustainable agriculture

The district of La Axarquía, located in the area east of Málaga, is a large area – greater than 1000 sq. km – with great biodiversity and a wide range of agricultural crops. In this raisin-producing area, this wide biodiversity is represented by the existence of various flora and fauna, the use of domestic animals to transport grapes, and the coexistence of certain crops, along with the traditional Vitis vinifera grape variety, in the farms where raisins are produced.

Agriculture is the main source of employment of the municipalities that produce grapes for raisins and vine growing, and the traditional drying floors (paseros) have been the basis for the formation of households for centuries, from Phoenicians times until the Muslim period.

In La Axarquía, the landscape consists of hills covered with the green colour of almond and olive trees and vineyards, with streams creating gullies and giving life to small valleys. This landscape is characterized by the contrasting white structures of traditional drying floors. Agriculture has shaped this cultural landscape for centuries and is the key to its sustainability by reducing erosion risk and supporting the local ecosystem. In addition, this cultivation system has so far proven to be the one most adapted to such a difficult environment.

Key findings: positive link between traditional agriculture and biodiversity conservation

On the local scale, the findings showed that vineyards are cultivated elements integrated into the landscape that do not substantially impact the natural development of the land profile and still contribute to landscape connectivity. The traditional method of growing grapes at the bottom of a human-led soil depression with the specific intent of saving humidity and organic matter creates a unique niche in which multiple types or organisms can survive, especially during the hottest months of the year. These organisms play a fundamental role in processing organic matter, promoting soil aeration and combatting pests and thus favouring and facilitating the survival of the grapevine.

Furthermore, the minimal disturbance of the agroecosystem by human-led agricultural practices, such as superficial tillage and weeding, have only a minor effect on the local biota and permit the maintenance of stable organism communities among both plants and animals.

Soil covered by wild herbaceous plants offers further protection against sun irradiation and evaporation and plays a fundamental role in stabilizing the soil against erosion and fertility loss. In addition, dry walls and historical terraces provide an important shelter for the local fauna and contribute to combatting soil erosion.

Risk to losing the traditional agroecosystems of the GIAHS site

Observed on a larger scale, the situation is much different. The cultivation of avocados is plausibly the first driver of change in the entire area, and it is substantially affecting the very existence of the GIAHS site. The conversion and the creation of new cultivation implants is impacting the landscape and creating significant modifications in the ecosystems, causing significant erosion of the vineyards. These changes probably will not be reversable.

The impacts on specific environments and local fauna must be considered as well. Due to the relevant value that avocado has in terms of plantation and production, the majority of the cultivated lots, especially those on the lower-mid part of the mountain, are completely surrounded by metallic fences. In most cases, these fences are supported by concrete walls, delimiting the property. These structures act as ecological barriers that impede fauna migration, thus contributing to population fragmentation and genetic isolation. This effect may be particularly relevant for mesofauna and megafauna, among which are threatened and protected species. Furthermore, given the fundamental ecological and conservational role of riverine environments in preserving local flora and fauna, endemic and subendemic species in particular, the reckless use of dry riverbeds and streambeds as roads constitutes a serious menace and active destruction of priority conservation environments.

In addition, the creation of these new plantations has changed substantially the traditional agricultural landscape appearance of La Axarquía, where viticulture had once evolved to adapt to the landscape. Today, intensive and extensive avocado monoculture is now re-adapting the landscape and environmental structure to its needs. This process, besides all the agroenvironmental aspects, also affects the pleasantness and liveability of the territory and is erasing the elements of agricultural historical–cultural peculiarity of the site. Unlike traditional rainfed viticulture, avocado cultivation requires a huge amount of water, which must be recollected, stored and actively pumped throughout the plantations. The creation of new water deposits, in the form of tanks and water basins, it is another important element of alteration of the traditional landscape and represents a disqualifying factor for the attractiveness of the landscape.

Ultimately, success in preserving the traditional viticulture of the La Axarquía GIAHS site will depend substantially on the capabilities of stakeholders, including producers and local authorities, to recognize the adequate value – economic and otherwise – of traditional viticulture and its products. So far, efforts required to maintain traditional viticulture and its products (wine and raisins) have not been sufficiently valorized.

The FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, through Regional Initiative 3 – “Managing natural resources sustainably and preserving biodiversity in a changing climate” – supports Members in the region in their efforts to reverse the loss of and restore biodiversity for food and agriculture and transition to more climate-resilient, sustainable agriculture and food systems by providing them with important tools, knowledge, information and technical support.