Environmental and territorial problems of the Spanish olive oil sector and priorities for research and innovation: a Delphi analysis

Abstract

Spanish olive oil LAFS host a wide environmental diversity and a great variety of olive grove management systems. The types of collective action and territorial governance also differ significantly from one LAFS to another. The main objectives of this chapter are: i) to analyse and valuate the main environmental and territorial problems affecting the olive oil LAFS; ii) to assess research and innovation priorities that the Spanish R&D&I system must enhance; iii) the relationship between the problems and the research programmes. The methodology has a cross-interdisciplinary approach, based on Social, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. A Delphi analysis is applied to a panel of experts in order to valuate the problems and the programmes. The quantitative scores are supplemented by qualitative information obtained from a round table of experts and from the comments made through the Delphi survey. As a result, seven R&D&I programmes, grouped under two big categories, are established: i) agro-environmental externalities corrective actions; ii) actions that address the olive oil LAFS and its multifunctionality. These programmes are relatively harmonised with the main problem categories. Soil erosion and degradation appears as the most important problem, whilst changes in the olive grove geography also emerge as a key territorial issue.