Life on the side of the way. Landscape structures to support biodiversity in La Garrotxa d’Empordà.
MBLandArch - Master's Final Thesis
ETSAB - UPC
The proposed landscape aims to support biodiversity and agroforestry, while also reflecting on the changes that have affected the territory and how climate change can continue to do so in the future.The project consolidates a diverse ecological mosaic, with an agriculture that CONSERVES biodiversity and GENERATES biodiversity, becoming not only an environmental improvement but also a social and economic one for la Garrotxa d’Empodrà.
The master plan aims to achieve a global conservation of the region’s distinctive biodiversity, with a focus on the improvement of the Bonelli’s eagle habitat. This renowned predator of Mediterranean habitats plays a pivotal role in the harmony of these natural systems, and is currently experiencing a significant decline as a result of the degradation of its habitat. On this line, the proposal value map represents habitats that have the potential to generate margin where are the most valuable preys for Bonellis eagle. The biodiversity richness of the Garrotxa d’Empordà and its capacity to support endangered wildlife is linked to margin habitats and their connectivity.
The proposal’s management tool in the territory allows the generation of marginal habitats and their permanence over time through landscape and agroforestry, using livestock paths and the care for the margins as ecological compensation structures. A megastructure of livestock paths that, merging with the morphology of the territory, are organized with the logic of river drainages, performing at the same time the function of connecting farmers and landscape tiles alike