An ecosystem vision like the one we defend highlights the importance of including human beings as a substantial part of the ecosystems that we want to conserve. This takes us away from the concept of passive conservation that for so long has caused a fracture between object (medium) and subject (person) of such harmful consequences. The new philosophies, to which we adhere, highlight the value of the systems from a socio-ecological perspective in which the human being plays a fundamental role, especially in a Mediterranean ecosystem transformed by the presence of the human being for more than two years. millennia.

Demographic mobility, rural abandonment and the consequent population concentration in cities contribute a set of risks added to the original complexities of ecosystems and pose a serious challenge to the conservation objectives that we defend at Naturoots. Spain has become a demographically atypical country in Europe, with vast expanses with population densities so extraordinarily low that they can only be compared with arid regions of northern Finland. This supposes a great loss of both natural and cultural values ??and increases the risk of degradation of many of the most valuable formations from the ecological point of view of our surroundings.

The need to reestablish the connection with nature seems essential to us in the context in which we find ourselves. That is why Naturoots acquires a social commitment
linked to the dissemination of traditional values ??as a basic tool for achieving sustainability objectives. The establishment of rural employment and participation in general local development projects are also part of our social commitment.

This philosophy is what we want to implement in the El Altozano farm (Sierra de Andújar), with a management that began in 2017. The drafting of a Technical Management Plan allowed this natural space to be declared an Ecological Reserve, a figure aimed at conservation that is granted to private farms in Andalusia. The Plan includes, among others, actions aimed at improving the habitat, with special emphasis on the conservation of the wild rabbit, a key species in the diet of the Iberian lynx and the Iberian imperial eagle.

For this purpose, artificial burrows have been made for rabbits, an artificial pond for amphibians (the only water point on the farm during the summer) and scrub clearing in order to open clearings to improve the pasture. In addition, every year the stone pine mass from repopulation is cleared in search of a mixed forest, which allows light to filter down to the ground so that other species can grow and the forest regenerates.