PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Like most economic sectors, agriculture produces greenhouse gases, accounting for around 10% of total CO2 emissions in the EU (4.7 billion tonnes in 2012). In Europe, around 57 million hectares are cultivated for agriculture, of which 5.6% (3 million ha) is devoted to vineyards. The main wastes and by-products from viticulture and winemaking activities are pruned vine shoots, grape stalks, grape marc, wine lees and winery wastewater. Pruning vine shoots alone yields 800-1 500 kg/ha.
One third of Europe’s vineyards are in Spain and vineyard waste management contributes to more than 5.5% of the entire CO2 emission share within Spain’s agriculture. Thus, improving the traditional management of vineyard pruning waste, which currently involves burning shoots, could significantly enhance sustainability and reduce climate impacts from viticulture and winemaking activities. The project is based in Murcia, which has 32 400 ha of vineyards, 1.1% of Europe’s total vineyards and 11% of the total cultivated area in the region).
OBJECTIVES
The main objective of LIFE SARMIENTO project was to contribute to the mitigation of, and adaptation to, climate change through the achievement of significant reductions of CO2 emissions from vineyards, and the improvement of climate governance with new land-use practices that improve the profitability of vineyards, halt soil degradation and enhance soil resilience and biodiversity in arid climatic conditions.
The project would apply a circular economy principle to vineyard pruning waste, converting it into a substrate that can be applied as enriched compost in vineyards, seedbeds and urban allotments, as opposed to burning it. This would also help to avoid soil degradation and have positive socio-economic and biodiversity impacts. The process would be developed and tested on 750 ha of vineyards in Murcia.
The project would also develop tools, training modules and guidelines to effectively transfer its solution to other wine production areas in Europe. Dissemination activities would have both a national and international dimension.
RESULTS
The SARMIENTO project developed a low-cost and low-emissions management system for pruning waste generated by vineyards that applies a circular economy principle. By the project end, the system was being implemented on around 434 ha of vineyards. The system converts vine shoot residues to new products (around 800 kg/ha/year).
Specially, the project has the following advantages over current management strategies:
- 85% reduction of CO2 emissions (around 2.37 tonnes per hectare per year);
- Improved soil condition and elimination of soil degradation, increasing the soil’s capacity to store carbon and increasing resilience; and
- Positive impact on biodiversity, with a bottom-up approach that supports a progressive improvement of soil biodiversity conditions and moving upwards along the ecosystem.
However, the system is not currently economically viable. It was therefore not demonstrated on a long-term basis and its sustainability has thus not been demonstrated.
Further information on the project can be found in the project's layman report and After-LIFE Communication Plan (see "Read more" section).
