Dynamic assessment of the sustainability of an olive grove as a social-ecological rural landscape in the Andalusia region Spain

In Spain olive groves have socioeconomic and landscape relevance because of the wide area they occupy (nearby 2,600,000 ha) and the proportion of population that depends economically on this crop (more than 10% of the agricultural sector) (INE, 2013). In addition, Spain is the world's leading producer of olive oil and the demand for this product continues to grow (IOC, 2016). The olive trees represent the predominant plant formation in the Andalusia region in the south of this country. These olive plantations are a spatial configuration element and its continuous expansion has marked the landscape, the culture and the economy of this region. The olive grove whose multifunctional character (ecological, socio-cultural and economic) confers it the proprieties of a social-ecological rural landscape (Infante-Amate & de Molina, 2013), presents a high priority for the application of a sustainable management defined by specific farming practices and an adequate territorial planning.
In the last decades, a more intensive management to improve their production is replacing the traditional extensive exploitation of the olive groves or, directly, they are being abandoned (Sánchez-Martínez et al., 2011). To mitigate or avoid the undesirable socio-environmental consequences generated by these two options it is necessary to get their long-term persistence considering their ecological sustainability and economic profitability. Until now, most of the olive groves studies have been carried out with a static approach and focused on the agricultural system (farm or local scale). In this work, as a novelty, we analyzed the olive grove at the landscape scale (agricultural system and its land-use context) applying dynamic models of simulation to project different production scenarios. The results showed that the scenario based on a management that appropriately combines intensive, integrated (semi-ecological) and ecological agricultural practices represents a long-term sustainable option. Through this type of combined management it could be achieved a profitable exploitation (up to 20% more benefits than intensification) and a reduction of the environmental impact (decreasing abandonment up to 10% compared to other practices). The combined strategy of management would imply to increase the spatial heterogeneity, at the farming scale (crop diversification) and at the landscape scale (land-use context diversification). In this way, soil erosion and pest management would be improved and the European environmental agri-schemes and Andalusian (regional) policies would be satisfied. In addition, farmers could secure the perception of different environmental subsidies. The management model obtained is a proposal for the olive oil Protected Designation of Origin of Estepa, as a case of study which should be contrasted, in the search for more ecological and profitable alternatives to the current model of olive management in this area and translatable for other olive areas.