|
Alpujarra R3 was set up to do something about the loss of the ancient farming systems and techniques which in the past had made La Alpujarra one of the most fertile and beautiful areas in Europe. As a result of that loss, there is now a very real danger of the area becoming severely eroded and arid.
The Andalucian Government and the Sierra Nevada National Park have set up working parties and volunteer groups to try to slow down this process of decline in La Alpujarra. Local initiatives are vitally important to complement their efforts.
This local project is bringing together Alpujarran farmers and volunteers to restore the area's traditional farming systems and pass on the skills and knowledge to maintain them.
The loss of cultivable land and traditional farming skills
The very mountainous area of La Alpujarra in southern Spain has benefited from an intricate farming system developed hundreds of years ago. A system which harnessed for cultivation the full potential both of the land, through terracing, and of the abundant water, through an extensive system of irrigation known as "acequias" (an arabic word that remains in use today).
Historically, the Alpujarra economy has included sheep and dairy farming, almond and olive groves, vineyards, wheat production, silkworm farms (raw silk production was at its height in the middle ages), as well as abundant fruit and vegetables.
However, the region has suffered badly from depopulation during the last 50 years. Unable to find work, or to compete with more intensive farming on the coast, young people have left the area: villages have dwindled, in one case to only 12 inhabitants.
Elderly farmers carry on the best they can, but each year their numbers diminish, and their knowledge of the traditional skills and crafts die with them.
As a result, much of the formerly cultivable land has been abandoned and many terraces and irrigation systems have fallen into disrepair. The land erodes and dries.
The effects of tourism
The last 20 years has seen an enormous increase in tourism in La Alpujarra as well as a recent influx of both foreigners and Spanish people moving here. Whilst boosting the economy, this has created increasing demands on local services but done very little to stem the physical decline of the land.
The dramatic beauty of this land is still the major attraction of La Alpujarra, but if that beauty declines then so will local tourism.
Restoring farming structures and passing on traditional skills
The project is currently bringing local farmers and volunteers together to restore two structures which are key to farming and to preventing erosion: the dry stone walls ("balates") which support cultivation terraces, and the acequias that irrigate those terraces. See acequias and balates for more information on these.
In the process of restoration, the ancient farming techniques of La Alpujarra are being passed on to a new generation and to an entirely new group of people.
The project aims to restore as much of La Alpujarra's farming systems as possible and to provide employment for people struggling to live in and take care of the area.
How the project developed
In autumn 2008 a group of locally resident foreigners and Spanish people approached Cat Jary, of AMS, and Antonio, a 75-year-old local farmer, to propose working together as a small volunteer group.
Each Thursday since early November 2008, Antonio has been leading between seven and twelve volunteers into the mountains to spend the morning restoring systems—in what is a pilot study of this approach to regeneration.
Projects carried out to date include clearing acequias, digging out an ancient water deposit to irrigate surrounding terraces, and dismantling two balates in readiness for reconstructing them.
Who is behind the project?
The principal people behind this initiative are Antonio, a 75 year old Alpujarran farmer, his son, Luife, Cat Jary, a British cellist who founded the Alexander Music School (AMS), and Deborah Lewis-Green, Cat’s associate in AMS.
The local Town Hall of Pitres and the Cultural Association of La Alpujarra are enthusiastic supporters of the project.
More information
For more information about the project, please contact Cat Jary:
Tel (0034) 958 857 481
Mob (0034) 600 056 159
email cat jary |
