Portugal to implement new EU certification of olive grove management

Portugal has joined a European network that will implement a new certificate guaranteeing olive grove management includes biodiversity conservation, thanks to a project of the University of Évora (UÉ) that was announced on Tuesday.

The project, “Olivates Vivos +” (Living Olive Groves +), is being led in Portugal by José Manuel Herrera from the Biodiversity and Climate Change Research Group at the Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development (MED) of the University of Évora.

With funding from the LIFE Programme in the area of nature and biodiversity, the project includes, in addition to Portugal, three other European countries that cultivate olive trees: Spain, Italy and Greece.

According to the academy, “Olivares Vivos +” promotes a new model of olive growing that recovers biodiversity and transforms it into profitability through payment for environmental services, eco-schemes, an instrument that encourages sustainable practices, and agro-environmental measures of the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

He also noted that this new model of agricultural management also made it possible to save on consumption in olive grove management, as an average 22% reduction in the cost of fertilisers and phytosanitary products was expected.

According to UÉ, the project, which began in 2022 and runs until 2025, is being implemented in two demonstration farms in the municipalities of Vidigueira (Beja) and Arraiolos (Évora).

In the first year, “the existing biodiversity was monitored in each of the partners, and an action plan for the promotion of biodiversity was implemented, with the placement of nest boxes, shelters for bats and drinking fountains”, he stressed.

For the next few years, the Alentejo Academy pointed out, an assessment of the recovery of biodiversity in each of the demonstration olive groves is planned.

Created within this project’s scope, the “Olivares Vivos” seal will “certify the first agri-food product in Europe with a scientific guarantee that attests to the recovery of flora and fauna species”, he added.

The presentation of the “Olivares Vivos +” project to the olive sector will take place on 16 June, at 09:30 am, at Herdade da Fonte Santa, in the municipality of Arraiolos, one of the farms testing this new model.

(Sérgio Major; edited by Cristina Cardoso – Lusa.pt)