The LIFE Olivares Vivos + project has reached the heart of its most central and delicate phase.
To best define the actions for 2025, the partners gathered in Tuscany to agree on the next steps to be activated during the year.
D.R.E.Am. Italia, as the partner responsible for developing the LIFE project in Italy, organized an event aimed at connecting the other members of Olivares Vivos with stakeholders of interest in the Florence area.
“Olivares Vivos is working at a European level to improve agricultural biodiversity, and in our country, it has implemented its model in four farms located between Tuscany and Lazio. The first results are already promising, and we are now analyzing how flora and fauna have improved in these olive groves,” explained Paola Semenzato, coordinator of the project in Italy and a technician at D.R.E.Am. Italia.
At the Tuscan reunion, two topics were particularly addressed: the training courses and the second biodiversity measurement needed to determine how flora and fauna have changed in the demonstration olive groves after implementing the Olivares Vivos model.
The meeting also provided an opportunity for team members from Spain, Portugal, and Greece to visit all the farms participating in the project as demonstration areas: two in Tuscany – Santissima Annunciata and Olivart – and two in Lazio – Iannotta and Colle dell’Arci.
In these settings, it is already empirically evident how the actions undertaken by Olivares Vivos to restore biodiversity are yielding excellent results.
The event was enriched with a gastronomic experience to highlight that Olivares Vivos oils are among the best in the world in terms of quality. They are also the only oils that, thanks to their seal, guarantee that every recipe is also a recipe for the active restoration of agricultural biodiversity. For this reason, Andrea Perini, known as “the extra virgin olive oil chef,” was invited to the event.
The Tuscan chef presented a gastronomic menu where the various EVO varieties from the OLIVART farm enhanced each dish, including original salads with wild herbs, traditional local stews, and a dessert featuring a blend from OLIVART, which brought the journey to a sublime conclusion.
OLIVARES VIVOS DEVELOPS TRULY SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
The word “sustainable” is certainly overused and polysemous, but it has become a concrete reality in the olive groves of the LIFE Olivares Vivos + project.
The project, with the participation of D.R.E.Am. Italia and coordinated by the Spanish Ornithological Society (SEO/BirdLife), is yielding remarkable results for the scientific community. It has launched an agricultural model focused on restoring biodiversity while improving the profitability of olive growers through the recovery of ecosystem services and the added value in extra virgin olive oils (EVO) conveyed by the Olivares Vivos certification mark.
The new agricultural model proposed by Olivares Vivos +, as an active fight against climate change and the degradation of ecosystem services, also has a significant economic impact, particularly regarding the economic sustainability of olive-growing businesses.
Expanding this innovative model to other Italian regions with an olive-growing vocation by implementing the Olivares Vivos certification represents a feasible goal that the team is working toward for 2025.
ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY FOR BUSINESSES
The olive sector is facing crucial challenges related to climate change, such as productivity loss and ecosystem service degradation. Olivares Vivos+ aims to restore nature as a bastion for improving resilience and achieving real sustainability in olive groves, both environmentally and economically, for Italian and other businesses.
“The first results of the project are promising, and now the scientific table is analyzing flora and fauna and their improvement in these olive groves,” explained Paola Semenzato.
Dream Italia’s technician and project coordinator in Italy added: “The Olivares Vivos model is based on solid scientific foundations and demonstrates how managing vegetation cover, re-vegetating unproductive areas, and integrating elements that support fauna encourage the recovery of flora and fauna without compromising agricultural productivity. This approach not only improves ecosystem services, such as natural pest control and soil fertility, but also contributes to the socio-economic sustainability of the sector, increasing profitability through olive oil produced in groves that promote it.“
The Olivares Vivos certification guarantees consumers a traceable, high-quality product that supports biodiversity recovery and promotes a sustainable agricultural model.
LIFE OLIVARES VIVOS, A PATH OF VALUE
Since 2015, and with funding from two LIFE projects, Olivares Vivos has developed and launched an innovative olive-growing model born out of consensus among farmers, scientists, and conservationists. Now, with the LIFE Olivares Vivos + project (2021-2026), efforts are underway to accelerate the model’s dissemination in major European olive-growing regions, expand it to other products (such as table olives), and transfer it to other crops, such as almonds, vineyards, and dry-farmed herbaceous crops (Secanos Vivos). The model is also adapted to the cooperative sector through the Cooperalive Operational Group, and the effect of grass cover in olive groves is being studied through the Coverolive Operational Group.
The LIFE Olivares Vivos+ project is developed by SEO/BirdLife as the coordinating partner and by the Province of Jaén, the University of Jaén, the Experimental Station for Arid Zones of the Spanish National Research Council (EEZA-CSIC), the University of Évora, the agricultural and forestry cooperative DREAm-Italia, the Helena Agricultural Organization, and Juan Vilar Strategic Consultants. The project is funded by the European Commission’s LIFE program and co-financed by the Province of Jaén and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, and Sustainable Development of the Junta de Andalucía, with financial support from the Spanish Olive Oil Interprofessional Organization, the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha, and Caja Rural de Jaén.
