| Project Id |
4013 |
| Project Name |
Olive groves of the town of Cres, Croatia |
| Description |
The island of Cres is located in Kvarner bay and it is the northernmost and biggest island in the Croatian Adriatic. Today, olive grove terraces of the island of Cres are the largest homogenous traditional olive grove area on the Croatian coast. They count more than 300.000 olive trees and comprise an area of 12 km2. Only a third of the trees are active today since much of the agricultural land is abandoned. However, the local agricultural cooperative in the 1950s decided to implement the olive-sheep model within the olive grove. This model can be found only in Cres (in this extension) and has been researched by the UN agency FAO who in the 1970s helped rethink and reinvest in the olive growing. Today it represents a unique example of a self-sustaining agropastoral system where sheep have the function of maintenance and fertilization of olive groves thereby almost replacing human labour and facilitating the reuse of their omnipresent dry stone walls. |
| Description of the economic, social and environmental impacts of the project |
The economic impact of the olive-sheep model implementation can be measured in many variables, but mostly through savings: 1) Human working hours which have been saved for the surplus vegetation removal 2) Wages which have been saved for the job done “for free” 3) Savings on the soil fertilization 4) Helping to produce the high-quality olive oil in a hundred-year-old traditional way of olive growing 5) High-quality oil and high demand encouraged the local community to invest in the neglected olive groves and the number of local inhabitants engaged in olive growing has increased The revitalisation of the olive growing has created new bonds in the community and enhanced group cohesiveness – a firm cooperation between local agricultural cooperative, A specific NGO has been formed which gathers olive growers, prepares lectures as preparation methods before every picking season and rethinks new solutions for the territory. High environmental positive impacts. |
| Web links |
website not provided |
| Country |
Croatia |
| City size |
Village (less than 5.000) |
