Imanol Zabaleta (Spain)
Vitoria-Gasteiz City Council
Centre of Environmental Studies
Imanol Zabaleta is the director of the Center for Environmental Studies in Vitoria-Gasteiz. Previously, he worked as a researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag-Sandec), and as a freelance consultant. His field of work was municipal solid waste management in low and middle-income settings. He has carried out projects in countries such as Bolivia, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Philippines, Tanzania, Kenya, Mexico, Seychelles, Morocco, etc. in collaboration with local partners and international organisations such as UN-Habitat, the German development agency (GIZ), the Japanese development agency (JICA), WWF and several NGOs. He has authored and co-authored several publications and has been closely involved in the development and validation of marine litter estimation models and waste-related SDGs. He is also one of the main lecturers of the Coursera-hosted MOOC "Municipal Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries". The Centre for Environmental Studies, which he currently directs, is an autonomous organisation whose mission is to create and push sustainability strategies in Vitoria-Gasteiz, acting as a link between research and municipal implementation. The Centre currently works around 6 strategic lines: Urban Green Infrastructure, Mobility, Food Systems, Circular Materials, Citizen activation and Data Science.

Presenter of 1 Presentation

 Conference Calendar

CAN A CITY-COUNCIL PUSH ITS OWN FOOD SYSTEM STRATEGY? – LESSONS LEARNT OVER A DECADE IN VITORIA-GASTEIZ

Session Name
0330 - Pecha Kuchas - Circular 01: Biobased materials and products, energy & food (ID 61)
Session Type
Pecha Kuchas
Date
02/23/2022
Session Time
02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Room

Hall B

Presenter
Lecture Time
02:30 PM - 02:35 PM

Abstract

Abstract Body

The City-Region Food-System of Vitoria-Gasteiz imports virtually all food it consumes, the vast majority of which is produced conventionally. It is estimated that current European food chains are responsible for 25% of the energy consumed within the EU, as well as for 17% of domestic GHG emissions (EU average). Furthermore, estimates revealed consumption rates of phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) as high as 5.32 kg P/cap.year and 35.52 kg N /cap.year in Vitoria-Gasteiz, most of which being used as fertilizer. Compared to planetary limits, these exceed by +591% (P) and +399.1% (N).

In spite of 43% of the 276 km2 of the municipality area being farmland, new farmers find it extremely difficult to start up a business. Only 0.6% of farmland is produced organically, and the vast majority of produce is exported for transformation. This is due to an array of legislative, social and economic barriers. This situation hinders any paradigm change, perpetuates current natural resource consumption rates in terms of artificial fertilizers and prevents the diversification of local production.

Vitoria-Gasteiz City-Council set up a long-term participatory food system strategy. Lack of generational handover, complicated permitting procedures, inhibiting urban planning regulations and lack of access to land were identified as some of the main barriers in the sector.

An important goal is to foster and diversify production by creating attractive conditions for new potential farmers. The city-council created in 2012 a farm-business incubator. However, it did not yield the expected results. The City-Council is currently preparing a new strategy addressing several aspects: improvement of the physical infrastructure onsite, adapting the regulation that sets the terms and conditions of use, readjusting the target public, as well as redesigning the advertisement campaign.

The city of Vitoria-Gasteiz compiled a vast experience during almost 10 years of working on an agro-food strategy. Under the auspices of the Farm to Fork strategy, it would be an honour to share our lessons learnt with other cities working along this path.

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