Murcia, Spain
A semi-arid Mediterranean landscape of rain-fed almonds and cereals, where water, soil and biodiversity are running out together.
Murcia, Spain
A semi-arid Mediterranean landscape of rain-fed almonds and cereals, where water, soil and biodiversity are running out together.
Rain-fed almonds & cereals
Water scarcity
Water retention
Regeneration Academy
This is the largest area in the world given over to rain-fed almond cultivation. Almonds and cereals grow here without irrigation, shaped by a climate that gives little and takes much. It is a landscape people have farmed for generations, and one that is now close to its limits.
Springs are drying up. Groundwater tables are falling, aquifers are becoming polluted, and patches of intensive farming and water over-extraction are pushing the system further. Add prolonged droughts, extreme weather and a rural population that keeps shrinking, and the pressures start to compound.
The concern is not any single one of these. It is that together they point toward ecosystem collapse.
Restoring this watershed will take more than a set of practices. It will take agreement on what the landscape needs, and who is willing to act. The work of La Junquera, the farm run by Regeneration Academy in the area, has already begun building that consensus locally.
FIREFLIES focuses on how water can be held in the landscape rather than lost from it, working mainly with ponds and infiltration ditches planted with natural vegetation. Which of these makesense, and where, is worked out with the farmers who manage the land.
Alongside this, the project studies how land use in the watershed has evolved and where restoration would make the greatest difference, so that individual farm decisions add up to something at landscape scale.
La Junquera
La Junquera
Quipar Valley
La Junquera
Quipar Valley
La Junquera
Quipar Valley
Quipar Valley
Quipar Valley
La Junquera
La Junquera
Fauna guardiana
La Junquera
La Vidriera Farm, Quipar Valley
Quipar Valley
Quipar Valley
Quipar Valley
Culebra Ratonera, Quipar Valley
Quipar Valley
Fauna guardiana, Quipar Valley
Regeneration Academy
Leads the demo region, working with farming communities on water management and agro-diversification, and running cultural and educational activities in the area.Angelica Marchetti, Regeneration Academy
angelica@regeneration-academy.org
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