“What we want is to recover lands that are abandoned and to return to management that is sustainable, that is respectful of the environment and prevents the deterioration of the territory.” This is how Mila Martín García, from Red Terrae, is clear, one of the so-called 'land banks' in Spain, an option that has a few years of history, but that has not taken off despite the amount of agricultural territory. which is unused. Now, she points out, competition from photovoltaic power plants makes it more difficult.
The issue of land ownership in Spain has been topical in recent months due to the protests carried out by 'tractor groups'. A 2021 Government report already emphasized the problems that new generations have in accessing crop fields when they do not receive them through inheritance (just over half are passed from parents to children).
The same report highlighted the importance of territories with missing owners becoming part of entities such as these 'land banks' so that they could become active. Experts assure that they would save many environmental problems, especially in forestry operations, which are true tinderboxes due to the lack of maintenance in a context of climate change that favors periods of drought and extreme heat waves.
And these banks exist, although in very different forms. But they haven't just taken off. With new competition from renewable energy plants and investment funds 'hunting' for land, their investment in the agricultural sector increased by 20% in 2022 compared to the previous year, 150% more. By 2023 that figure could have doubled, according to data from the Ocampo platform. There are public land banks under regional management in several autonomies: the 'first stone' was laid by Aragón in 1985, which sought to adapt the management of communal lands to new regulations, but later they have emerged in Galicia, Catalonia or Valencia.
“We obtain land from donations and transfers to reforest with species adapted to each area. At the moment, we have 34 hectares in Spain, but now the transfer is a bit stopped. Our goal is to manage them, something we do thanks to sponsorships from companies and individuals. We have launched projects in Soria or Guadalajara, which have been growing for years," explains Raúl Merino, president of the Green Areas Association, of which a peculiar bank is a member aimed at obtaining hectares to reforest and promote the biodiversity of the forests.
The Emprius Foundation bank, in Catalonia, is also private, but with a different focus. Its objective is to promote communal culture. Like the previous one, it collects donations and inheritances from rural properties that are then transferred to projects that comply with its principles, and these go through 'radical' democratic management, agroecology, the regeneration of the territory and feminism. The commune to which this property is granted can be the neighborhood of a town, inhabitants of a district, a cooperative, a collective or an association.
“We are committed to food sovereignty and to combat land grabbing, and also that all this is done collectively, as was done in the past in rural assemblies that are being lost, although they still survive in some places, such as the Galician councils and some areas of the Pyrenees and the north,” says Joan Enciam, researcher and member of the foundation. Alba Hierro, also a collaborator of the Emprius Foundation in matters of strategy, recognizes that “it is not easy to fight against the dynamics of the market and obtain properties transferred, even if they are held without any use.”
In any case, Catalonia is a territory subscribed to this type of initiatives, of which there are a dozen. Among them, the Smart Rural project of the Barcelona Provincial Council, launched in 2019 as a land bank. “Our role is to advise on agricultural projects and put owners and interested parties in contact, but in a professional manner. Sometimes they are leases and other times plots are transferred, but always with the objective of mobilizing land that now does not generate food and maintaining the agroforestry landscape, making it more resilient against fires,” says Pere Navarro, in charge of Smart Rural.
Among the successful public land banks, managed by autonomous communities, Galicia stands out. Its function is also to offer guarantees in the rental of land, putting the owner in contact with the possible tenant and generating trust between owner and landlord, which is scarce in these procedures. In 2022, almost 13,000 farms were participating in this initiative in the paradise of smallholdings.
In this autonomy, it is estimated that there are 900,000 hectares abandoned. Its manager, Irene López, recognizes that the law for the recovery of agricultural land of 2021 gave them a strong boost: “There are owners who do not even know what they have and now, with this law, as long as we locate them or not, we can rent them. If the owners appear after five years, they are returned, but with the obligation to keep them cared for; If not, they become available for the land bank to lease,” she says.
Following their example, a decade ago as an initiative of the Regional Council of El Bierzo (León), its own bank was created, a public service that in this time has awarded 3,570 plots, although it manages 4,300. Beatriz Anievas, its manager, is convinced that the formula works. It is the only one in Castilla y León and goes far beyond making a mere intermediation.
"Not only do we have a legal team that supports the procedures - Anievas points out - we also monitor and advise on crops, we lend agricultural machinery, we hold kilometer zero fairs for the sale of products... We are in 38 municipalities and we have plaintiffs coming to us. who want to expand their farms, but also young adults who are looking to start an agricultural activity. They are all offered training to grow organically, although it is up to everyone to decide.” The person in charge of the El Bierzo land bank concludes that “we want to protect the landscape, avoid pests and diseases and avoid the risk of fire. “Land banks are an option that should be expanded because we see that they work.”
