Barcelona is embedded in a rich and delicate Mediterranean ecosystem. Although gray asphalt and urban routine cloud this evidence, the city and its surroundings are fully conditioned by nature and the resources it provides. The drought and its restrictions are a reminder of this dependence. Water availability is crucial for life, as are other natural resources, no matter how much the city tries to make its citizens forget this link. Our sea, our forests. Our rivers, more or less mighty. The soil and the land, biodiversity. All of them, key. All of them, at risk, and largely underutilized and without the protection they deserve.
Given this situation, the director of Palladium's Natural Resources Hub, Joan Cabezas, and the CEO of Roman, Silvia Alsina, combined vision and strategy to create Nactiva. Both launched it in April 2022 as a collective platform, with the purpose of increasing and improving the natural capital of the Mediterranean region. And it is that pampering the threatened ecosystems of our region will not only allow maintaining its rich and precious biodiversity and resources, but also regenerating them and responding to important future challenges. These challenges are environmental in nature, such as the current drought and also storms and floods, but they go further. They include issues such as food, the availability of raw materials, and forest fires.
"We have a powerful ecosystem, what we lack are ambitious projects, and this is Nactiva's role," highlights the platform's current CEO. Joan Cabezas emphasizes that Catalunya enjoys a great diversity of ecosystems: from the Pyrenees to rivers, passing through a diverse coastline, through plains and orchard lands that offer multiple landscapes throughout Catalunya. And all of them have something in common: they treasure natural resources with great potential that is rarely taken advantage of.
Nactiva aims to promote the protection and regeneration of ecosystems from Barcelona as the "capital of the Mediterranean"Nactiva was founded to reverse this reality, activating the natural capital of our environment. It is a goal it pursues through three pillars: "We seek maximization for natural capital, for society, and for investors. We seek this triple ecological, social, and economic impact," Cabezas summarizes. Nactiva was conceived as a collective platform promoted by the private sector, with the support and financing of fifteen companies. Specifically, its partners include companies such as Ametller Origen, Agbar, Naturgy, Cementos Molins, Celsa, Grupo Catalana Occidente and Flax&Kale, and it has the support of Foment del Treball and the Institut Agrícola Sant Isidre. In addition, the platform works collaboratively with actors involved in the territory, ranging from companies to institutions, administrations and NGOs.
And how is this work to maximize natural capital carried out? In projects that Nactiva currently focuses on four areas: forests, land, the coast, and water. Since its founding just nine months ago, it has launched ten initiatives, while keeping another ten under study. All of them must be scalable and replicable, so that their use can be generalized in multiple Mediterranean areas. Nactiva thus aims to promote the protection and regeneration of its ecosystems from Barcelona, as the "capital of the Mediterranean." In addition, the initiatives respond to a long-term impact strategy, as nature requires slow-cooking projects.
This long-term strategy leads Nactiva to also make economic forecasts years in advance. "The total value of the projects we are mobilizing is about 500 million euros, once they are fully implemented," says Cabezas, who predicts that their implementation will be advanced and consolidated in about five years. "Nature is slow and requires time." This fact makes it difficult to close more limited forecasts for the initiatives promoted by the platform, which include projects such as the regeneration of marine biodiversity in ports and the creation of agricultural parks, each of which will require an investment of more than 25 million euros, according to Cabezas.
Nactiva expects the total value of the projects it is mobilizing to be around 500 million euros once they are fully implementedThe creation of these agricultural parks is one of the initiatives that Nactiva promotes through its land-focused programs. Only 15% of the garden products consumed in Catalonia are local, when it would have the capacity to supply no less than 100%, according to Cabezas. Given this situation, Nactiva is developing a map of optimal areas for market garden cultivation, that must be designed under a technified and sustainable model. To promote this model in existing crops, he advocates for boosting farmer support centers, so that they can learn new technologies and methods and can carry out tests on land other than their own crops.
This is not the only initiative that Nactiva promotes in the field of land. The platform also promotes projects for the production and sale of alternative protein, especially plant-based. The market for plant protein from legumes to imitate meat products is booming, and the production of legumes is a reality in Catalonia that can be expanded and directed towards the manufacture of this plant protein. This is what Nactiva believes, which has an Advisory Board of diverse profiles specialized in areas linked to natural capital.
And from the field, to the forest. "Forests provide us with many products, such as food, wood, and biomass," Cabezas recalls. And the potential in this area is remarkable, as 67% of Catalonia's surface is covered by forests. However, less than 25% of the available forest area is utilized, something that Nactiva wants to change with its initiatives.
The platform also focuses on the regeneration of water basins, rivers, and aquifers. In the area of water, it proposes transforming old industrial colonies along the Llobregat into an hub for R&D in natural capital, tourism, leisure, education, and wellness. Another water-related initiative affects hydroelectric power plant dams: they propose opening orifices in the dams so that animals and sediments can flow from one side to the other, thus protecting the river and the coasts. Cabezas assures that this is a practice already carried out in other places, and argues that future tenders for these plants should require the execution of this type of intervention.
"It represents a little less energy, but much more biodiversity and coastal protection, which in turn implies better fishing," Cabezas emphasizes. The maritime coast is precisely Nactiva's other target. In this area, it promotes projects such as the regeneration of biodiversity in port environments, through the installation of structures that facilitate marine life, such as those designed by Ocean Ecostructures. The recovery of posidonia meadows is also key for Nactiva, which is why it has "an eye on the Balearic Islands." All this without forgetting that the most microplastic-contaminated European beach is in Catalonia. The sand of La Pineda beach in Tarragona is fatally mixed with thousands of pellets, small colored balls used for plastic manufacturing in the chemical industry.
The platform proposes transforming old industrial colonies along the Llobregat into an hub of R&D in natural capital, tourism, leisure, education, and wellnessLand, forests, water, and coastline. These are, for now, the four pillars of Nactiva, which plans to open new dimensions as its collaborators grow. It has areas such as air, high mountains, and urban zones in its sights. "We have to greatly improve the management of cities' natural capital", with the purpose of advancing towards greener cities. All with the aim of mobilizing and protecting natural capital, also as a response to future challenges and threats.
"It's about finding solutions to problems that belong to no one, but affect everyone. They belong to no one but, instead, we have the capabilities to solve them," proclaims Cabezas. The co-founder of Nactiva believes that steps have been taken in this direction, especially regarding social awareness of challenges and problems like climate change, evidenced by phenomena such as drought. "Society is beginning to understand these challenges, and must begin to understand that the basis of everything lies in nature."