ICTA - Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals

Red coral effectively recovers in Mediterranean protected areas after decades of overexploitation

Protection measures of the Marine Protected Areas have enable red coral colonies (Corallium rubrum) to recover partially in the Mediterranean Sea, reaching health levels similar to those of the 1980s in Catalonia and of the 1960s in the Ligurian Sea (Northwestern Italy).

Sub-national “climate clubs” could offer key to combating climate change

‘Climate clubs’ offering membership for sub-national states, in addition to just countries, could speed up progress towards a globally-harmonised climate change policy, which in turn offers a way to achieve stronger climate policies in all countries.

El ICTA-UAB estrena su programa “Locos por la Tierra” de la Fundació Catalunya La Pedrera

Victoria Reyes-García receives an ERC Proof of Concept grant linked to the LICCI project

Victoria Reyes-García ICREA Research Professor at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) is one of the 76 top researchers that will receive ERC Proof of Concept grants.

Moving towards low-carbon lifestyles: a question of collective action

Originally published on the CUSP blog .

ICTA-UAB demands the UAB to reduce number of flights

Given our current climate emergency, recently acknowledged by the UAB, the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) has drawn up a proposal urging the University to put into action a new travel policy to tackle one of its most polluting activities: Flying.

New assessment finds EU electricity decarbonization discourse in need of overhaul

It’s well known that the EU is focusing its efforts on decarbonizing its economy.

ICTA-UAB to organize the International Conference 2020 on Low-Carbon Lifestyle Changes

ICTA-UAB will host the International Conference 2020 on Low-Carbon Lifestyle Changes with the aim of exploring the role of changing lifestyles in climate change mitigation.

Iron availability in seawater, key to explaining the amount and distribution of fish in the oceans

People tend to pay more attention to how much food they are eating, than with how rich their diet is in essential micronutrients like iron.

Mining waste dumped into Portmán Bay continues to release metals into the sea 25 years later

The waters of the Mediterranean Sea continue to receive dissolved metals from the mining waste deposited in Portmán Bay (Murcia) 25 years after the cessation of mining activity.

A new ICTA-UAB project to assess the impacts of micro- and nano-plastics in the tropical and temperate oceans

A new project led by ICTA-UAB researcher Patrizia Ziveri is one of five projects selected for funding by the Joint Programming Initiative Healthy and Productive Seas and Oceans (JPI Oceans).

Big data reveals extraordinary unity underlying life’s diversity

Limits to growth lie at the heart of how all living things function, according to a new study carried out by ICTA-UAB researchers .

Jeroen van den Bergh, awarded an honorary doctorate by the Open University of the Netherlands

The environmental economist at ICTA-UAB Prof. Dr Jeroen van den Bergh was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Open University of the Netherlands.

High lead concentrations found in Amazonian wildlife

Researchers from ICTA-UAB and the UVic-UCC detect high levels of lead concentration in wildlife samples from the Peruvian Amazon caused by lead-based ammunition and oil-related pollution in extraction areas.

Study gauges trees’ potential to slow global warming in the future

The Pyrenean forests, the Cantabrian coast and Galicia show an important potential to accumulate even larger amounts of carbon dioxide in the future and thus help to slow down the increase in CO2 concentrations which are warming the planet.

Why do environmentalists eat meat?

A study by researchers at the ICTA-UAB analyses the reasons why environmentally-minded scientists find it difficult to give up meat consumption, one of the world's greatest environmental problems.

La gestión del verde urbano permite incrementar la presencia de pájaros en las ciudades

Incrementar la biodiversidad del verde urbano permitiría aumentar la presencia de aves paseriformes en las ciudades mediterráneas, según un estudio científico realizado por investigadores del Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnología Ambientales de la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB) que analiza qué estrategias hay que implementar sobre la vegetación urbana para conseguir "naturalizar" las ciudades favoreciendo la entrada de flora y fauna.

The Ebro River annually dumps 2.2 billion microplastics into the sea

An ICTA-UAB study analyses the distribution and accumulation of microplastics from one of the main rivers of the western Mediterranean.

Excelencia María de Maeztu

Education

Master's Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies in Environmental, Economic and Social Sustainability

Master's Degree in Political Ecology. Degrowth and Environmental Justice

PhD in Environmental Science and Technology

Graduate Diploma in Promoting Agroecological Farming at the Local Level

Educational activities - postgraduates and summer courses

ICTA-UAB regulary offers additional training to its PhD students, and invites other doctoral students from abroad to participate in summer schools or advanced seminars on diferent topics that relate to our research areas and themes.

Educational activities - postgraduates and summer courses

Graduate Diploma in Promoting Agroecological Farming at the Local Level - http://www.uab.cat/web/postgraduate/graduate-diploma-in-promoting-agroecological-farming-at-the-local-level/general-information-1217916968009.html/param1-3258_en/param2-1998/

Introduction

The industrialisation of agricultural activity has had a great impact on the environment and society the world over. In Europe the result has been a profound degradation of natural resources, the landscape and rational agricultural ecosystems, along with a decline in farming's social and economic importance, which has led in turn to a decline in rural communities. These tendencies have not been reversed in the last decades by corrective policies on agriculture and rural development, focusing on post-productivism and the multifunctionality of agriculture.

Agroecology arose in Latin America as a compendium of science and folk knowledge, in response to the symptoms of social and environmental crisis linked to changes in the agrofood system. Although Latin America has considerable experience in this area, attempts to adapt agroecology to Europe have mainly relied on theoretical approaches.

Agroecology has three different dimensions: the environmental-productive dimension, the socio-economic and cultural dimension and the socio-political dimension. In Europe, the incipient empirical experiments and applied research carried out have focused mainly on two of these dimensions: on the one hand, on aspects of single farm production (environmental-productive dimension), and on the other hand, on characterising the expansion of agroecology as a social movement (socio-political dimension of agroecology).

However, the socio-economic and cultural dimension of agroecology has hardly been developed, beyond a few incursions into rural restructuring processes (or deagrarianisation) and the growing role of farming activity as a stimulus for territorial and social cohesion in peri-urban areas.

This dimension (socio-economic and cultural) includes all factors related to the building of local networks and alternative food production; the recovery of folk knowledge about the environment; access to the means of production (especially land, water,energy, genetic resources and financial resources); policies on agriculture and rural development; the role of agricultural activity in peri-urban areas of the major metropolitan regions; and the recovery of self-esteem in rural and agricultural life, as part of the construction of symbolic contexts that are favourable to agroecology.

These problems are likely to persist in the future in rural areas and this, together with the ever-increasing importance of social and environmental sustainability in land-use planning and public policy on rural areas, highlights the importance of training courses like the one presented here. Meanwhile, the growing importance of agroecology and the proposals on rural agro-ecological development in the next implementation period of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (2014-2020) justify the need to train up professionals to implement this approach in land-use policies for urban and peri-urban areas and in rural development policies.

Access requirements

- Bachelor's degree of 180 ECTS minimum, or equivalent.

- Access to this course will also be considered for candidates who do not have the above qualifications, for example, if they have sufficient proven professional experience in the sector. On passing the course, these students will receive a certificate of attendance only.

Career opportunities

- Local government officers in rural and peri-urban areas, working mainly in employment, land-use planning, environment, crop and livestock farming, food supplies, etc.
- Regional or national government officers working in crop and livestock farming, rural development, or protected natural spaces.
- Private-sector consultants on sustainable rural development.
- Businesses involved in Social Economics, in particular, ecological agriculture and sustainable rural environment.
- Research in agroecology and sustainable rural development.
- Civil society agencies involved in agroecology and sustainable rural development.