The olive grove forms a part of our story, and is an unquestionable element of the landscape and cultural heritage of the Mediterranean since thousands of years ago. For the Greeks and Romans, it was a totemic tree, a symbol of immortality, peace, strength, victory and hope.
Distribution of olive groves in the Mediterranean
Its distribution around the Mediterranean occupies large areas of land, almost 5,000,000 hectares in Europe, a bit more than half of which is in Spain.
Andalusia is the region that dedicates the most surface to the olive grove, with approximately 1,500,000 hectares. The province with the largest number of olive groves is Jaén.
In Spain, the environmental crisis of the olive grove began at the end of the 80´s when the Common Agricultural Policy took force in our country, which caused the intensification of the olive grove and systematically eliminated all that was not olive groves, sparing no supplies (insecticides or herbicides, among others), since everything that did not produce olives was irrelevant. This process has taken an enormous environmental toll, causing the loss of a good part of the biodiversity of the olive grove and causing extensive degradation of its ecosystem services.
The olive grove is a strategic crop for recovering biodiversity; due to its characteristics as a permanent forest crop, due to its distribution across the breadth of the Mediterranean basin (the main hot point for biodiversity in Europe), and due to its status as a native plant of the Mediterranean environment.
In addition, it surrounds the main Protected Natural Spaces, and can act as a large ecological corridor between these spaces.
Why the Project
Olivares Vivos?

The obsession for producing has led the olive grove to a situation that is environmentally, economically and socially unsustainable.
The objective of LIFE Olivares Vivos is to reverse this situation, increasing the profitability of the olive grove by recovering its biodiversity. For this, we will collectively address the environmental and economic crisis of the olive grove through a demonstration project, capable of establishing and certifying a profitable olive growing model that is compatible with biodiversity preservation, positioning said productive model as a recognized added value, profitable in the olive market.