SOIL TALKS Episode 3: Living soil in the Dehesa | InBestSoil LH1

In this third episode of SOIL TALKS, Andrés Rodríguez Seijo, InBestSoil Project Coordinator, speaks with Rocío Seisdedos de Vergara and Begoña Lozano Dieguez, technicians in the Grazing Area at Fundación Global Nature, and María Catalán Balmaseda, Project Coordinator at ACTYVA Cooperative, about the Dehesa El Baldío de Talaván experimental site (LH1). This episode explores how regenerative livestock management can support the restoration of soil health and biodiversity in the Dehesa, a Mediterranean agroforestry ecosystem shaped by human activity and recognised as high-nature-value farmland. The discussion focuses on the challenges faced at El Baldío de Talaván, where low livestock density contributed to degraded soils, bare and compacted ground, low nutrient availability, and poorer pasture quality. The speakers explain how the Lighthouse is testing practical approaches to reverse this degradation by working with natural processes. A key focus is rotational grazing, a practice that divides the farm into paddocks and combines short grazing periods with longer recovery times. This supports grass regrowth, improves soil cover, stimulates microbial activity, and helps move carbon into the soil through the natural “carbon pump” process. The episode also presents livestock pinning, or redeo, an ancestral technique based on temporary high-density confinement in small movable pens. By regularly moving the pens, manure and trampling are concentrated in targeted areas, while the land receives enough rest to regenerate. As both a Lighthouse and a Living Lab experience, LH1 offers a space for knowledge exchange with farmers looking for alternatives to conventional systems that depend heavily on external inputs. Learn more about InBestSoil: https://inbestsoil.eu/