Learning from the past to address the future. Environmental challenges of Spanish agriculture in the 21st century: a look from the legacy of Fernando González Bernáldez

Abstract

Based on the pioneering reflections of González Bernáldez at the end of the 1980s on the environmental consequences of agricultural intensification and abandonment, we review the changes experienced by the Spanish agriculture up to the present in environmental issues, identifying some of the future challenges. First, we review the progressive integration of environmental and territorial aspects in the European Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), as well as Spain's response in terms of adoption and implementation of its main instruments: Conditionality on direct payments and Agri-environmental measures. The CAP reforms have not counteracted the effects of agricultural intensification, to which the severe negative trends observed in the main agri-environmental indicators, analyzed here for the period 1989-2020, can be related. The new governance model introduced by the CAP 2023-2027, focused on results, is expected to contribute decisively to the objectives of the "European Climate Law" and the "Farm to Fork" and "Biodiversity 2030" strategies; however, doubts persist about its transformative potential. Finally, we review the main contributions of Agroecology, Organic Agriculture, Sustainable Intensification and Ecological Intensification, which can help in the transition towards a more sustainable and resilient agriculture. The actions of the CAP aimed at producers must pursue the multifunctional redesign of the agroecosystems, through payments for environmental services that make them sufficiently attractive and profitable, as González Bernáldez suggested three decades ago.