Restoring Valle del Quípar: A mission to bring life back to the land
The Valle del Quípar is a reflection of the challenges facing southern Spain—a region where the land has suffered decades of unsustainable farming, damaging water sources, and rising temperatures. Once a life-giving valley, the Quípar now struggles under the weight of erosion, desertification, and biodiversity loss. But this isn’t just a story of decline—it’s a story of hope, action, and community-driven change.

Why it matters
The Quípar River, running through one of Europe’s driest areas, was once the lifeline of this 30,000-hectare watershed. Generations of farmers thrived here, growing food and cultivating a connection to the land. Today, water scarcity and depleted soil have left the valley and its people in crisis. This isn’t just an environmental issue—it’s a human one. When the land suffers, so do the communities that depend on it.
What are we doing
This isn’t a quick fix. It’s a bold, long-term effort to heal the land and the lives it supports. At the center of this movement is La Junquera, a 1,100-hectare farm leading by example in regenerative agriculture. Since 2015, La Junquera has shown how restoring ecosystems can also restore livelihoods. It’s a place where farmers, scientists, and students come together to learn, innovate, and collaborate.
The restoration of Valle del Quípar focuses on three things:
- Water: improving natural water flows to restore wetlands, streams, and the river itself.
- Soil: bringing life back to degraded soil, which is essential for growing food and storing carbon.
- Community: supporting local farmers and businesses in transitioning to sustainable practices that benefit both people and the planet.
What’s different about this project
This is about more than just planting trees or fixing one part of the problem. We’re working with the “4 Returns Framework” from Commonland, an approach that looks at the big picture. It’s about bringing back natural balance, creating jobs, and building hope for future generations. It’s a model that can inspire other regions facing similar challenges, not just in Spain but across the Mediterranean and beyond.
The following video shows vegetable farms in the middle of the desertic landscape
How you can help
This is a call to action for anyone who believes in the power of nature and community to create change. Whether it’s donating to the cause, partnering with us, or simply spreading the word, you can help turn the Valle del Quípar into a place of abundance once again.
This valley has a future. Together, we can make it happen.
TESTIMONIAL

FINN HARRIES
“I spent an amazing week at the Regenerative Academy in Murcia, Spain to complete a crash course in regenerative agriculture.
This is part of my research for my masters degree at Cambridge University. I loved learning the basics of soil health, water capture, food harvesting and composting. 🌱
The course is run on a massive 1,100 hectare farm that used to practice traditional industrial agriculture but now is leading the way in regenerative practices in the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss.”

NATHALIE NAHAI
Where to start? I signed up for the Regeneration Academy’s one-week crash course, with the intention of gaining some practical knowledge and hands-on experience of what regenerative agriculture is, and how it can be used to restore ecosystems and food networks. In reality, it turned out to be so much more than this – it was one of the most transformative, memorable and joyful courses I’ve attended. The team was generous, open-hearted and welcoming, the food was a delight, and we came away feeling emboldened and optimistic as to the futures we can create when we work together towards a common goal. It was an extraordinary experience, and one which I can’t recommend highly enough.

RUBY & CHRISTABEL REED
The @regenerationacademy at @lajunquera are experimenting with, engaging in and researching regenerative agriculture in their 1700 hectare farm. They are brave and immensely inspiring, working at scale in one of the most impoverished parts of Spain where the land is being desertification by the climate and by conventional agriculture, as well as by the people and communities that used to inhabit it. This incredible community is proving that it is possible, even if not straightforward or simple, to transition to agricultural practices that revitalise both the planet and people. Last week we learnt about the power of context, complexity, culture and community 🌞🌻🥬”

Arno Foppe
My research project at La Junquera made me experience the reality of regenerative farming and gave me the opportunity to contribute to the next steps on the farm.

— Paulina Binsfeld - de Bus
“Doing my thesis at La Junquera has broadened my perspective on regenerative farming a lot. Because it is such a big farm, I got the opportunity to learn about all the different elements of regeneration, not just the agriculture part. Living here and seeing the day-to-day activities showed me that nothing is perfect, it’s a constant trial and error, not a pristine concept. I also learned a lot about what my role can be in a community and what elements I want to take with me when starting my own farm one day.””

Sofía and Pablo
In this course, we learned about the regenerative model, a model that proposes a paradigm shift in the current agricultural system and that involves the commitment and fight against the loss of biodiversity, climate change and desertification. Through small seminars, debates, and above all, visits to the field, one knows first-hand what day-to-day life is like in the field and how to make a living from the regenerative business.
The course is taught by professionals in the field, who are the living example of the wealth that is generated there. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to make a living from agriculture, for environmental researchers, or simply for curious people who want to rediscover nature