At La Junquera farm (Spain) we have planted over ten thousand trees this winter to restore the degraded natural landscape.

We have found two main challenges during the process. The first one was the selection of species. The farm is located at 1200m above sea level and the region presents a semi-arid climate that has an extreme variation of temperature between seasons (from -15º in winter to 36ºC in summer) and scarce and erratic precipitation (average 350-400ml). These conditions complicate the establishment and survival of vegetation. With the help of a local expertise, we have selected native 11 resistant species. We also aim to perform minimum maintenance during the spring season. The second challenge was to plant 10.000 trees in a season without machinery. Since planting without a tractor is more ecological but much slower, we needed
the help of volunteers and coordination efforts that got complicated due to the Covid-19 situation. However, we managed to plant the 5000 individuals before the beginning of the spring without a tractor and the other 5000 with a tractor. 

From a social perspective, we have supported the local nursery and provided a part- time job to one person, making her stay at the farm possible. Bringing back life to the rural areas is essential to fight increasing depopulation rates in the region due to migration to cities.