The GreenFrontier project is currently hosting Sergio Couto from the University of Granada whose research on Spanish commons and conservation is bringing a new facet to the ongoing work done by the team across several European marginal areas.
On the 8th of October Sergio will give a talk titled: How to recognize the role of communities governing commons in nature conservation? Understanding 15 years of recognition initiatives in Europe. The event will take place between 12:30 – 13:30 in Lumen 5, on Wageningen University Campus.
We are looking forward to welcoming you to the event!
Abstract
Commons have a key current and potential role in nature conservation in Europe, but this role is usually unknown and unrecognized. At the same time, lack of recognition lays at the root of many of the current challenges for commons in Europe. In this seminar we will explore several bottom-up common initiatives for an adequate recognition of the role of commons in nature conservation, implemented by local communities during the last 15 years in Spain. We will explore its effectiveness, its limitations and its future potential for facing the current socio-ecological crisis.
Sergio is a Galician biologist and activist interested in the links between nature conservation, community wellbeing and communal governance. He began his career in wildlife conservation, conducting inventories and establishing wildlife management criteria in several protected areas in the Pyrenees. He has worked at the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology (CSIC), the Spanish Ornithological Society (SEO/BirdLife), the European Commission, the Bearded Vulture Reintroduction Program in Andalusia, and on numerous conservation projects under the EU’s LIFE program, always in close collaboration with rural communities. Sergio led the first nationwide study on ICCAs-Territories of Life in Spain and is one of the co-founders of Iniciativa Comunales, a national association of communities that govern commons in Spain. He has also been the founder and coordinator of the Common Lands Network of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.
For ten years, he has been regional coordinator of the ICCA Consortium for Europe, being currently an honorary member and Europe councilor in the Global Council. Sergio is a commoner of the traditional and historical Irrigation Community of the Acequia de Aynadamar (“the Fountain of the Tears” in Arabic), one of the oldest Irrigation channels bringing water to the city of Granada since its origin. He is working as a researcher on governance and recognition tools for traditional and historical irrigation systems, and other types of commons, at the Laboratory of Biocultural Archaeology (MEMOLab-UGR) at the University of Granada (Spain), where he is currently conducting his PhD.