More than half of the towns in Spain could disappear. However, there are more and more initiatives that take advantage of the territory’s resources to generate wealth and help avoid depopulation. As if it were a story, in a small town in Teruel, there are olive trees that can help fill its streets with life again. They are the centuries-old trees, of incalculable value, that Sira Plana and her team are dedicated to saving in Oliete, a municipality of 340 inhabitants.
Sira, daughter of the rural exodus, maintains a strong bond and powerful poetic memories with the town of her grandparents. The one where one day she left her father to move to Madrid – where she was born – and where her childhood was spent between summer vacations, Christmases and parties, among cousins ??and friends. For this reason, she does not want her town to disappear and, together with her colleagues from apadrinaunolivo.org, she wants to help the neighbors of a community of which she feels so proud. Almost 10 years ago, they found a way to do it. With the olive trees.
“apadrinaunolivo.org arises from that affection and love for the town, in those moments of meeting with worried friends, because, every time you return, you see more closed doors and more empty streets. It was in those thoughts that the idea arose: a crowdfunding that would allow us to make a change a reality,” he details, adding: “They are part of our historical heritage and have witnessed a lot of stories. They have given us when we needed it and now they continue to offer us a lot,” Sira points out.
apadrinaunolivo.org invites you to become a godfather or godmother of one of these abandoned centenary trees, through an annual contribution. You go to the website, choose the one you like the most, name it and follow its recovery process. Then, the best part remains: going to visit it whenever you want. As a thank you, you receive 2 liters of Extra Virgin Oil per year from the recovering olive trees.
“In addition to the environmental impact and recovering 17,000 olive trees and all the biodiversity, there are now 35 people on the team, a beautiful way to attract talent to the environment. These people are enriching the Oliete school, which was on the verge of being lost. There are also thousands of visits that we add, which have a very strong indirect impact. They are the rural houses, the restaurants, the shops… Getting to know our product and territory,” Sira celebrates. An effect that is measured in the generation of employment that fixes population; in rural tourism that contributes to the economic development of the town, thanks to the visits of godfathers and godmothers; in the protection of the precious flora and fauna that inhabits and depends on the olive grove.
The powerful action of apadrinaunolivo.org has joined forces with companies such as Endesa, which was awarded the Andorran just transition competition called by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge. “I was looking to meet actors like us so that together we could generate a positive social and economic impact in an area like this that is part of the company’s history,” explains Sira.
The region of Andorra has always been an emblem of coal and mining. Its thermal power plant, one of the largest in Spain, was operational for four decades, creating a deep-rooted bond in the area. Now, after the dismantling of the plant, Endesa is already launching a future plan that contemplates the implementation of a new industry and the development of new energy power, this time of renewable origin. This is one of the most ambitious energy and socioeconomic transformation plans in Spain, and with a clear objective: to generate more employment than there was at the plant and to continue adding value to the territory.
“What a just transition project does is bring together an energy project with socioeconomic support. That is to say, to the employment that is derived from the entire energy project, a whole series of transversal actions are added that will cover different sectors of activity and will allow the creation of additional employment that will compensate for what previously existed in the area,” he explains. Ramón White, head of Endesa for the Mudéjar Just Transition Knot project.
This project will make it possible for Andorra to go from producing energy with coal to generating clean energy with an installed power of 1,843.6 MW, thanks to 7 hybridized renewable projects, 2 battery storage projects, a green hydrogen project and a synchronous compensator. And all this will leave, within five years, 500 permanent and lasting jobs in the area.
For this to be possible, it is necessary to focus on training. The Endesa program will provide more than 300,000 hours of training, over the next three years, related to the activity that renewable plants will generate. It will have thousands of beneficiaries and will benefit groups such as young people, women and the unemployed. “One of the fundamental axes of our support plan is training and, therefore, we have launched the Rural School of Sustainable Energy. It is transversal and covers very diverse areas of activities, not only those that have to do with renewable activity, but also with the primary and secondary sector,” defines Ramón White.
The training plan is made up of several blocks, such as renewable energies, biodiversity or primary sector activities. Training in this last area will be carried out in collaboration with reference entities in the area. Among them, ATADI, an association dedicated to people with disabilities that, today, has 10 centers in the province of Teruel.
“When the plant transformation plan arrived, Endesa contacted us and we started working with them developing different projects. Like an inclusive olive grove that has been given to us, from which we will harvest the first olive harvest in December or, the pictopueblo, with which we want Andorra to be a benchmark in integration. In all establishments there will be a pictogram so that any person with an intellectual disability can understand if they are in a bakery, a hairdresser or anywhere else. We do it in collaboration with the Gloria Fuertes school, a special education school in Andorra,” explains Javier Cantalapiedra, director of ATADI.
This training is clear that the best possible social insertion for people with disabilities is employment. “We have an average of 6-7 students to be able to provide the most personalized attention possible. Now we are doing a composting course, which also includes clearing and a little plant care, which is another of the tasks that, in the future, we will carry out for Endesa’s photovoltaic plants. We try, together with the company, to provide these opportunities: to make it easier for people with disabilities or other groups to work and so that we can make, together, a good transition towards the new circular economy and, at the same time, structure the territory,” details the director. of the association.
Training that generates employment. Employment that generates population. And population that generates life in the towns. “The energy transition contributes to the creation of jobs, opportunities for people with disabilities and, therefore, to settle the population. Many families, if their son has a stable job, will settle in the territory with him,” says Cantalapiedra.
“This is a pioneering project in Spain and Europe, and I believe that this idea, in which we have been able to combine the energy project with the socioeconomic support plan, is the one that will be followed in many locations where situations of cessation of activity of fossil plants, as is the case of Andorra,” ventures Ramón White. With the residents of the region as protagonists and the olive trees as centuries-old witnesses, the drive for the just transition in this territory transcends the mere generation of energy. It is a rebirth that weaves stories of roots, employment and community life.