Pro-Biodiversity
Pro-Biodiversity is a guarantee mark that promotes extensive sheep and goat farming linked to biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in rural areas.
It develops a more beneficial and profitable marketing model for livestock farmers operating under traditional extensive systems, offering them fairer prices in line with the quality of their production and the uniqueness of their work processes, linked to the conservation of biodiversity.
Pro-Biodiversity Brand
It is a trademark registered in 2011 by the Bearded Vulture Conservation Foundation.
It follows a short circuit marketing model that minimizes intermediaries, thanks to the involvement of food distribution platforms and the Paradores de Turismo network. This allows producers to obtain a fairer price and fosters a closer relationship between the consumer and the producer.
In return, Pro-Biodiversity farmers commit to following a code of conduct focused on production quality, animal welfare and biodiversity protection. They manage their flocks respecting their natural cycle, with a diet based on mountain pastures and in coexistence with wildlife.
This model is made possible through an alliance between farmers, processing centers, distributors and the Bearded Vulture Conservation Foundation.
As a guarantee mark, all Pro-Biodiversity products are subject to a quality system certified by an independent body, which covers the entire process, from livestock grazing to the marketing of the final product.
Extensive livestock farming
When a forest is abandoned, it is quickly overtaken by scrubland. The landscape becomes impoverished, biodiversity decreases, and the risk of fire increases to an extreme degree.
Extensive livestock farming is based on the use of resources according to the natural cycle, which has multiple benefits:
- It controls vegetation growth, reducing the fuel load in the forest and, consequently, the risk of fire.
- It keeps pastures and meadows open, thus contributing to maintaining a mosaic of habitats and, therefore, numerous associated species: birds, flowers, reptiles, butterflies, etc.
- Livestock carcasses provide food for scavenging birds of prey.
- It keeps the landscape alive and maintains a rich associated cultural heritage, such as footpaths and trails, small buildings, foods, and traditions.
- It makes use of local resources, thus minimizing CO2 emissions.
- Extensive livestock naturally enjoy better welfare conditions.
The socioeconomic benefits are also important:
- It helps maintain the socioeconomic fabric in the most challenging areas of the rural world, such as mountain regions and other low-productivity lands.
- It produces healthy food with excellent organoleptic qualities.
But extensive livestock farming is dying out, especially sheep and goat farming. Among the causes, we highlight:
- Competition from intensive livestock farming and foreign markets, which allow for lower prices.
- Livestock management is more difficult.
- Low quality of life.
- Limited control over distribution channels.
- Limited generational succession.
- Low levels of cooperative organization.
To maintain extensive livestock farming, it must be made profitable, and Pro-Biodiversity addresses all these aspects.
Animal Welfare Protocol for herds integrated into the Probiodiversity guarantee mark
According to EU animal welfare rules, all animals must enjoy:
- Absence of hunger and thirst
- Absence of discomfort
- Absence of pain, injuries, and diseases
- Freedom to express normal behavior
- Absence of fear and anxiety
In Spain, techniques for assessing animal welfare in livestock farming have mostly been developed for intensive production systems, while extensive systems have been almost ignored.
Although raising animals in extensive conditions can be considered beneficial from the point of view of animal welfare, the environmental conditions associated with it can generate a series of animal welfare challenges, ranging from possible uncontrolled pathologies to the presence of parasites, malnutrition, variations in access to food or restriction of the possibility of direct monitoring and supervision. Likewise, in territories with a persistent presence of wild carnivores, the management of herds with guard dogs is essential, and their well-being must be ensured as well as that of the livestock they protect.
The ProBiodiversity guarantee mark assumes these precepts and obliges the livestock farms included in it to ensure the general welfare of both herds and groups of working dogs.
In this sense, the livestock farms associated with the brand must adopt the protocol indicated below, always assuming the concept of continuous improvement.
Bearded Vulture
The FCQ (Foundation for the Conservation of the Bearded Vulture) works to conserve the bearded vulture, a vulture that has the unique characteristic of being the only species on the planet that feeds exclusively on bones.
Until the beginning of the 20th century, it was common in most of the mountains of the Iberian Peninsula, but the widespread use of poison and direct persecution brought it to the brink of extinction.
The largest population in Europe is found in the Pyrenees, and it is being reintroduced to some mountain ranges within its former range. The Foundation for the Conservation of the Bearded Vulture works to ensure its conservation in the Pyrenees, the Cantabrian Mountains, the Sierra de Gredos, and the mountains of the Maestrazgo region of Teruel.
To this end, in addition to reducing risks to the species, it promotes the maintenance of extensive sheep and goat farming, whose remains contribute to the species’ diet.
Bearded Vulture
The FCQ (Foundation for the Conservation of the Bearded Vulture) works to conserve the bearded vulture, a vulture that has the unique characteristic of being the only species on the planet that feeds exclusively on bones.
Until the beginning of the 20th century, it was common in most of the mountains of the Iberian Peninsula, but the widespread use of poison and direct persecution brought it to the brink of extinction.
The largest population in Europe is found in the Pyrenees, and it is being reintroduced to some mountain ranges within its former range. The Foundation for the Conservation of the Bearded Vulture works to ensure its conservation in the Pyrenees, the Cantabrian Mountains, the Sierra de Gredos, and the mountains of the Maestrazgo region of Teruel.
To this end, in addition to reducing risks to the species, it promotes the maintenance of extensive sheep and goat farming, whose remains contribute to the species’ diet.
