Biodiversity Foundation Project: POLINIZ-UP

The Union of Small Farmers and Ranchers (UPA) has completed the POLINIZ-UP project, aiming to combine productive agriculture that ensures food production for society with the protection of biodiversity. The Polinizup Project has demonstrated that it is possible to implement sustainable agriculture that allows for and enhances biodiversity. Important lessons have been learned about the importance of choosing plant species to ensure, on the one hand, an appropriate habitat for insects, but also to ensure the productivity of farms, without interfering with it and, if possible, attracting auxiliary insects that can be used to combat biological pests.

The farmers have enthusiastically participated in the experience, seeing how it is possible to combine productive agriculture that ensures food production for society with the protection of biodiversity. 142 species of pollinating insects have been identified in agricultural environments. Of this total, 12 are wild bees and two species of butterflies are protected and included in the IUCN Network, in addition to six Iberian endemic species.