Interview with Elena de Julián

Introduction & Background

1. Could you briefly introduce yourself and tell us about your role at Fundación Global Nature and in the InBestSoil project?

I am Elena de Julián, project officer in the grazing and regenerative livestock program at Fundación Global Nature. For me, it is very exciting to work on InBestSoil as a European project that allows us to collect data on our farm about the impact of rotational grazing in a dehesa, and to contribute those data to large-scale work on economic quantification and the development of business models, investment, or incentive schemes to promote good livestock practices and soil health.

InBestSoil is an applied research and innovation project within Horizon Europe, part of the EU’s Soil Mission. Our core question is whether we can maintain and restore soil health in the face of current pressures, such as land-use change and, above all, climate change, through innovative business models and incentive tools based on the economic valuation of the ecosystem services that healthy soils provide.

The idea is that by translating the value of healthy soil ecosystem services and intervention impacts into monetary terms, and co-designing related business models and incentives, we increase opportunities for large-scale investment in soil health across Europe.

2. What makes El Baldío farm a key site within the project?

El Baldío is a dehesa ecosystem farm in Extremadura, owned by the Foundation for over 30 years and always managed with biodiversity conservation as a guiding principle. During this time, the Foundation has learned a great deal about how to run a profitable livestock farm that also protects the environment. Profitability here matters—not because the Foundation seeks to make money, but because a dehesa farm that is not profitable cannot serve as a real-world example, a model for other farmers to adopt practices that restore soils.

Today, the management has shifted from a more conservative model with very few animals (assuming this would regenerate trees and soils) to a planned rotational grazing system with a holistic vision of the entire 230-hectare farm. This approach prioritizes resource use with native breeds, and it is managed with the improvement of biodiversity and soil health as central objectives.

Soil Health

3. How would you define “healthy soil” from your perspective?

Soil is healthy when it can sustain its ecological functions over time. It continues to regulate waterand carbon cycles and hosts a living community capable of recovering from disturbance. It maintains its structure and composition, biological diversity, and balanced nutrient cycles. It does not suffer erosion, compaction, or pollution.

A healthy soil is not necessarily the one that produces the most or yields the highest outputs, since each soil has its own characteristics and potential. What must be clear, however, is that the more chemicals or mineral fertilizers we add without considering the soil’s biology, the more we degrade soil health in the long run.

4. Why is soil restoration so urgent today, especially in Spain’s agricultural and climate context?

Restoration is urgent because we are running out of soils that feed us and sustain forests—soils that sequester atmospheric carbon, store and filter water, and stay alive. Soil is fundamental in any ecosystem, yet degradation levels are extremely high (60% of Europe’s soils are seriously damaged, Soil Atlas 2024). This degradation brings erosion, desertification, fertility loss, and compaction. It is caused by overexploitation, pollution, and land-use change, all of which are being accelerated by climate change.

The value of soil is practically incalculable—not only because of the services it provides, but because of the immense time it takes to form, and the shocking speed with which we can destroy it. Restoration is therefore both a responsibility and a matter of survival. Supporting practices that regenerate and restore soils is infinitely more valuable than continuing degradation in the false belief that soils will keep providing as before.

Practical Application on the Ground

5. What soil restoration practices are being applied at El Baldío?

As a livestock farm, at El Baldío we are applying two animal-based management techniques for soil and pasture regeneration. These are traditional methods designed to make the most efficient use of all the farm’s resources: rotational grazing and redileo.

• Rotational grazing means moving the livestock almost daily, or every 2–3 days, through the farm in a planned rotation. The movement is organized into small paddocks, carefully calculating that there is enough forage for all. We use electric fences and virtual collars to manage this, and we rely on native breeds well adapted to the environment. In this way, the animals fully use the resources of the small paddock, create a strong impact on the soil, fertilize it, and then— here is the key—we let it rest for at least 3–4 months before bringing animals back, ideally evenlonger. During this time the soil rests, absorbs organic matter, and the pastures, with their wide variety of seeds, take up the nutrients and water.

• Redileo is applied with black Merino sheep. At night we enclose them in a small open-air pen (redil) with the help of shepherd dogs, in areas where we aim to reduce scrub in order to expand grazing surfaces, improve pasture diversity—especially with perennial grasses—and reduce bare soil. This redil is mobile and moved every 2–3 nights, allowing us to gradually expand the impacted area.

6. Have you already observed visible or measurable changes in the soil or ecosystem?

Yes. In less than a year, we have seen positive results in the three objectives we set: reducing scrub, decreasing bare soil, and improving pasture diversity. In this way, we are successfully restoring our farm through animal management.

We have also been able to increase the herd size, since there are now sufficient resources, and the workload is still manageable for a single person.

7. How have local farmers and the surrounding community reacted to this work?

Many local farmers need to see practical examples proving that by doing things differently, one can still achieve good results while adapting to climate change and reducing dependence on purchased feed. For this reason, most are curious about how to implement it.

Of course, there are others who will not change their management style, either because they cannot take on the effort or because they are not yet convinced of the benefits. I believe that, in time, necessity will push them to adopt change, and they may realize they have lost years—and soil.

Science & Innovation

8. How is soil health measured or evaluated within the project?

As a complex ecosystem with enormous variability in composition, soil health depends on many factors. A great deal of research is devoted to establishing reliable soil health parameters.

In InBestSoil, considerable effort has been made by both academic partners and pilot farms to establish a common set of more than 60 indicators, covering physical, chemical, and biological conditions. These indicators give us a fairly accurate picture of soil status. With that “snapshot,” depending on land use (industrial, urban, agro-livestock) and its environment, we can assess whether a soil is in balance or imbalance.

9. Are there collaborations with universities or scientific institutions?

Absolutely—otherwise it would be impossible. This project brings together 19 partners, more than half of which are research centers across different fields—not only soil science, but also socio-ecology, economic engineering, agronomy, and climate change. Collaboration and cooperation in designing strategies and solutions are fundamental.

It is also invaluable to exchange across contexts. For example, learning how partners in Italy or Latvia have solved similar problems is highly useful for us.

Policies & Broader Impact

10. What do you consider necessary to replicate or scale initiatives like this?

The main obstacles are resistance to change and a lack of trust that doing things differently will work—even when it is clear that current methods no longer deliver results. Added to this is the lack of supportive policies and incentives for soil restoration, combined with heavy dependence on them in the farming sector, which does not encourage taking the necessary steps.

Another very real obstacle is the short-term mindset that values money as the only benefit. Implementing these measures requires an initial investment—whether financial (for fencing, virtual collars, shepherd dogs, or water points) or time (for learning, pasture planning, and animal movement). But farmers who have already shifted their mindset see this as an investment, not an expense, because within a few years they save on feed and also have healthier soils and pastures for their animals.

11. Have you received support through public policies or European funding? What kind of support is needed to scale these measures?

On the one hand, there needs to be a clear institutional commitment to supporting regenerative practices, with policies and incentives—both public and private—that regulate and promote Good Livestock Practices.

We also need to reduce bureaucracy and reasonably adapt sanitary regulations for extensive livestock systems and for short food supply chains.

On the other hand, we need much more awareness—within the farming sector, but also in society as a whole—about the positive impacts that grazing and regenerative livestock have on global health: the health of our pastures and dehesas, the health of our rural communities, and the health of our bodies through local, ecological food.

Human Connection

12. What personally motivates you to work with soil and ecological restoration?

My greatest motivation is to contribute, even if only in a small way, to ensuring that farmers who truly love their work, care for the land, and feed us can continue to do so—making it a little easier for them, and hopefully encouraging more to join.

13. What message would you like to share with young people or citizens around the world who want to support soil protection?

I would tell them that we can do more than we think. In Europe especially, as consumers, we hold a lot of power in our daily choices of what we eat—and with that, which food system we support.

Sometimes we need to look a little harder and avoid the easiest option, which is often the least sustainable. Or we may need to trade quantity for quality and reconsider how often we consume certain foods, like meat.

Most importantly, we must stay informed. Only then, as citizens, can we demand that our governments comply with soil restoration and conservation laws and take action across different sectors to achieve the objectives set by Europe’s Soil Mission.