LIFE+ Los Desiertos Verdes - Jornada Técnica - Presentación Transfer LBC

¨ A N A M B I T I O U S R E F O R E S TAT I O N P R O J E C T C O N V E R T I N G 6 3 H E C TA R E S O F B A R E A N D D E S E R T I F I E D L A N D I N T O

F O R E S T W I T H O U T T H E U S E O F T R A D I T I O N A L I R R I G AT I O N ¨

The Green Deserts

S E C O N D T E C H N I C A L S E M I N A RF R I D AY, 2 1 S T O F M A R C H 2 0 1 4 , AY O Ó D E V I D R I A L E SB Y S V E N K A L L E N A N D E G B E R T S O N N E V E L D

L I F E 0 9 E N V E S 4 4 7

Objectives

¨Desertification of areas which used to be lungs of Mother Nature for the

capture of CO2, sources of food production and landscape.¨

1. Prove technical and economic feasibility of the Waterboxx system

2. Prove technical and economic feasibility of the Waterboxx

3. Dissemination4. Clarify best combination of soils, trees, local climate, application methods and scope

Life+ 9 Green Deserts - Second Technical Seminar, 21st of March 2014 in Ayoó de Vidriales

The partners

Provincial Council of León: They areresponsible for the activities organisedand executed in the area of San Isidro

Ayuntamiento of Riofrío de Aliste: They are responsible for the activities organised and executed in this area

FGUVa: FGUVa is the leader of theproject and will be responsible for thegeneral management of the project.

UVA: UVA will be mainly responsiblefor the monitoring of the plantations andchecking the feasibility of the innovation

Provincial Council of Valladolid:They are responsible for the activitiesorganised and executed in the area ofMatallana

Aquapro: Aquapro is the designer ofthe biopolymer twinboxxes, greenboxxand capillary drill and will test them inthe field.

Sylma: Sylma will be responsible forthe delivery of the saplings to theproject areas.

Ayuntamiento of San Mateo de Gállego: They are responsible for the activities organised and executed in the area of San Mateo.

Transfer :Transfer is responsible for the activities organised and executed in the area of Sant Boi de Llobregat. Besides they will be mainly responsible for dissemination and local awareness activities.


Viladecans-Sant Boi de Ll., in Barcelona.Heavily affected terrain due to a forest fire andnatural conditions (altitude of 100-300, stonysoil, little to zero water retention capacity, south-oriented and very hot summer winds)

The project areas

Matallana, in Vallodolid.-Former illegal waste dumps with no existing natural capillary system-Former forest area with a steep hillside and altitude of 800m, a basic and clayey soil, and a combination of dry summers with cold winters. -Terrain at the University of Valladolid for more precise monitoring of activities such as root development and growth of the plants.

Riofrío de Aliste, in Zamora.The terrain is characterized by an altitude of 900meters, strong winds, high rainfall during thewinter and acid soils.

Estación de esquí de San Isidro, in León. The terrain is characterized by high elevation (1600-1800m), rocky and steep mountain, a high amount of rainfall and snow during the winter resulting in avalanches and dry summers

San Mateo de Gállego, in Zaragoza.The terrain is characterized by extremedesertification, little rainfall, very stonyunderground with high amount of calcium and

some clay.


The actions


Characterization and selection of species and lots

Preparation of saplings

Realization of the Waterboxxes and capillary drill

Planting of the saplings

Maintenance, control and technical monitoring

Innovations

.

Realisation of the WaterboxxesThe project aimed to test the technical and economic feasibility of the Waterboxx in different versions (plastic, biodegradable plastic, cardboard).

Realization of the capillary drill The capillary drill will be developed and experimented to reduce excavation efforts, which is normally very heavy in dry and rocky areas. AquaPro had developed a first prototype just before project started and tested and improved it during the project.


Planting and maintenance

Before actual plantation could start saplings needed to be prepared and delivered to the areas. The logistic operation from Belgium and the hot and dry weather in Spain complicated this part considerably.

After that, each partner was responsible for the correct plantation of the saplings with the Waterboxx and the maintenance of their area.

The first plantation took place in 2011, the second in 2012 and in some areas this plantation took place in 2013.


Monitoring• Monitoring plant viability by controlling the health status through field inspection

• Some plants were lifted to inspect root growth

• Control of the Waterboxxes.

• Climatological study. Registration of the temperature, humidity inside- andoutside the Waterboxx and installation of field recorders

• Improvement in the design of the remote sensing control


State of the projectDemonstrate technical and economic feasibility of Waterboxx

Colleagues of UVA will elaborate on this issue further


First lessons learnedPlanting

• Impossibility to plant during the summer months of July and August.

• Difficulty to plant and fill Waterboxxes on hilly terrain.

• High operational cost (maintenance)

• Health conditions of the plants at least as important as protection by Waterboxx.

Plant viability and state of the Waterboxx

• Damage by wildlife: moles, rabbits, goats, cows and wild boars

• Deformation due to compactation of the soil under Waterboxx, especially loam and clay

• Occurrence of algae

• Sand on top of Waterboxx and in siphons with weeds growing as a result


Other lessons learned(also in other Life projects)

Importance of vertical labouring of soil before planting trees

High operational cost in large, hilly areas. Importance of properly prepared planting material

The Waterboxx looks like an excellent solution for high value plants in fruit & vegetable production

Importance of combined techniques, incorporating f.e. the right miccorhyzae, bacteria and othernutrients when seeding the trees in the nursery and during planting

Threat of ‘biodiversity invasions’: Waterboxx creates an oasis with fresh water, which also attractsundesired flora and fauna

Importance of correct maintenance (complaints by local populations about uncontrolled plasticboxes in the environment: moved around by animals, by vandalism, or strong winds).


Disseminate concept

LIFE 09 NAT ES 520Delta del Ebro - Sant Carles

de la Rapita

LIFE 07 NAT ES 762Reserva de Campanarios de Azaba

LIFE 11 ENV ES 535 Operation CO2 and

LIFE 09 ENV ES 431 CREAMAgua

Cooperation with other Life+

•LIFE 09 NAT ES 520 - Delta Lagoon Sant Carles de la Rapita (Tarragona) - Fundación Naturaleza y Hombre

•LIFE07 NAT ES 762 - Conservación de la biodiversidad Reserva Campanarios de Azaba (Salamanca) - IRTA

•LIFE 11 ENV ES 535 Operation CO2 - (Castilla y León, Aragón, Catalunya) - UVA

•LIFE 09 ENV ES 431 CREAMAgua - (County of Los Monegros)


Disseminate concept

Communication and publication on the Website

The Spanish website has received 5.554 visits, out of which 3.977 were unique visitors.

The English website received 2.784 visits of which 2.190 were unique visitors.

News: 411 articlesPress: 52 articles


Disseminate concept

The Facebook page currently has 213 Likes and received 16.657 impressions


Disseminate concept

Communication and publication on YouTube

The YouTube channel now has 110 videos and has generated 43.080 views over the whole project period.


Disseminate conceptCommunication and presence at 10 international conferences and fairs


- Green conference IUFRO, Lisbon, Portugal, 2012.

- 31st IPM, the world's premier trade fair in the green sector, Essen, Germany, 2013

- 6th Spanish Forestry Congress, Vitoria-Gasteiz ,2013.

- 7th Portuguese Forest Congress, Via Real-Bragança, 2013.

- 1st European Climate Change Adaptation conference (ECCA), Hamburg, Germany, 2013.

- EEA GRANTS Conference - The Role of Water in Adaptation to Climate Change, Lisbon, Portugal, 2013.

- The regional delegation of FAO and the Ministry of Agriculture and the foundation FICASA, support child nutrition at schools, Cape Verde, 2013.

Local Awareness to get people to act

The project aims to attract attention from the local, national and international communities through active participation.

- 12 informative activities

- 7 educational visits for regional primary and secondary schools

- 5 presentations for interest groups

- Matallana demonstration site

Disseminate concept


Thank you for your attention

For more information, please visit: www.losdesiertosverdes.com


Education

LIFE+ Los Desiertos Verdes - Jornada Técnica - Presentación Transfer LBC