Employment
Back to the Monitoring Hub
Increase in number of nature-based jobs and enterprises
Data collection in progress
Iberian Highlands
Spain
Problem: In the Iberian Highlands, as in many other areas of Europe, rural economies and societies have changed over recent decades. Younger generations are drawn to urban regions by better employment prospects, education, healthcare and social life, leading to a decline in the provision of rural goods and services and a lack of public and private investment. This has resulted in increasingly limited employment opportunities for local people, exacerbated by the mechanisation of agriculture and forestry processes (traditionally significant job creators).
Action: Rewilding Spain will develop Landscape Business Plans together with local stakeholders, entrepreneurs and interest groups to support wildlife- and nature-based businesses that benefit local communities by creating new economic opportunities that are more closely tied to natural environments. Guidance, and technical and financial support will be provided to enterprises to start building new nature-driven economies, such as ecotourism, in the region.
Indicator: The number of new jobs and enterprises related to the rewilded landscape created will indicate the project’s efforts to support nature-positive enterprises in the landscape.
Tourism companies visiting a hide rehabilitated by Rewilding Spain. Photo: Rewilding Spain.
Tourists on a wildlife-watching safari in the Frias de Albarracín grazing area. The jeep was purchased with a Rewilding Europe capital loan. Photo: Rewilding Spain.
Methods
Data describing the number and size of nature-based enterprises will be collected from three sources: (1) two networks of already existing local nature-positive enterprises (AECOMATS and Turismo Sierra de Albarracín); (2) tourism departments of the two regions in the landscape; and (3) the number of applications for enterprise capital loans to Rewilding Europe.
Results
The baseline value for this indicator was collected in August 2022. By this date, three enterprises were registered as associates of AECOMATS and 70 enterprises as associates of Turismo Sierra de Albarracín. Table 1 shows the number of enterprises dedicated to tourism in the regions of Cuenca and Guadalajara located inside the Iberian Highlands, including a total of 523 accommodation providers, 96 restaurants and 22 tourism enterprises. Two applications for Rewilding Europe Capital loans have been developed in the landscape.
Table 1: Baseline values of enterprises existing within the Iberian Highlands landscape in 2022, per county.
Partners
