Those of my generation, or even a little younger, may remember the dreadful paintings of deer and horses that were given away in the 1970s when you bought one of those three-piece suites Made of plastic, freezing in winter and scorching hot in summer. In most cases, the animals depicted in the bucolic paintings ran through the forest or drank from a lake or stream. The story I'm about to tell you is loosely related to this type of painting. The world's first nature reserve, legally protected by the state with all its resources, was created in France in 1853, during the prosperous era of the Second Empire. It wasn't very large: about 630 hectares of the extensive Fontainebleau forest. Today, such an initiative would be considered left-leaning on the ideological spectrum; however, in 1853 things were quite different. The Fontainebleau reserve originated thanks to pressure from a group of aristocrats who, to fill their leisure time, dedicated themselves to amateur landscape painting. One of the most common subjects was precisely those paintings of deer and horses that experienced a resurgence in the 1970s, associated with the sofas that were fashionable at the time. The initiative of those amateur painters had immediate effects, but not exactly on the progress of art. In Fontainebleau, there were people, generally very poor, who earned their living making charcoal. Beekeeping was also an important activity, both for honey and for beeswax, which at that time still had various uses. There were also, of course, many hunters who suddenly became poachers, that is, criminals. It is likely that before his death in Cannes on April 16, 1859, Alexis de Tocqueville learned of the creation of that reserve. It would be very interesting to know the opinion of the author of The Old Regime and the Revolution about the event, because Fontainebleau is not exactly a neutral place in relation to the history of French absolutism.

It is estimated that there are around 200,000 wild boars in Catalonia, distributed unevenly across the territory. A monitoring program has been in place for two decades, documenting the differences in population density: there are more than fifteen animals per square kilometer in Alt Empordà and Les Gavarres, fewer than three in Els Ports de Tortosa-Beseit, and between three and six along the coast. Collserola ParkThe area is where the outbreak of African swine fever, which has raised all the alarms, is concentrated. Generous rainfall, an abundance of holm oaks, oaks, and beech forests, along with extensive irrigated crops, favor the proliferation of these animals, which generally follow an upward demographic trend. In fact, the Catalan government's program indicates that "wild boar populations do not appear to be close to reaching their peak and have the potential to continue growing."

When he was six years old, his parents sent him to live with his grandparents in Punjab for a year, hoping he would understand his Indian roots. That experience profoundly marked him. It was nothing like his native Essex, in the United Kingdom, which was much grayer and more industrial, and it instilled in Yadvinder Malhi (High Wycombe, UK, 1968) an admiration, curiosity, and passion for nature. Today, this professor of ecosystem science at the University of Oxford is one of the world's most recognized scientific voices in the integration of ecosystem ecology into Earth sciences. His work on climate change and biodiversity loss, especially in tropical forests, has been fundamental. For this reason, he was awarded the 21st Ramon Margalef Prize for Ecology 2025, granted by the Government of Catalonia.

Sara Pérez (Geneva, 1972) is one of the most respected voices in the wine world. The winemaker at Mas Martinet and Venus La Universal, she was born in Switzerland, where her family was in exile. At the age of two, she returned to Priorat, where she planted roots as deep as they were sentimental. She vehemently defends organic and sustainable viticulture. The daughter of one of the Magnificent Five of Priorat, Josep Lluís Pérez, and the younger daughter of another, René Barbier, Sara Pérez has just been recognized with the prestigious Golden Gueridon at the San Sebastián Gastronomika congress. It was an award ex aequo with Master of Wine Almudena Alberca.

Tracjusa, the renovated Juneda slurry treatment plant (Garrigues) that will use a new gasification system produced with solid fuels from urban waste, will begin operating in the first quarter of 2027. This was announced today by the managers of the GAP livestock cooperative, which with the Griñó Group is co-owned by another group that requires the combustion of domestic waste supplied by Griñó (up to a maximum of 45,000 tons per year).

The Catalan organic farming sector is up in arms against the Catalan government's bill that seeks to implement a new Sustainable Agricultural Production (PAS) seal. They claim that this new seal, which will use an "agricultural sustainability calculator" to rate the good practices of Catalan farms, will grant certification of sustainable to products that use pesticides and herbicides, and will generate confusion among consumers, who will mistake them for organic products. "It's the final blow to small organic producers and it's the Generalitat de Catalunya itself that has dealt it to us," denounces Josep Mestres, from the driving group of the Association of Agroecological Producers of Catalonia (APACAT), in the ARA.

The ecological transition seems to generate less and less enthusiasm among the working class, to the point that "climate denialism" continues to grow, driven by the far right. In a courageous article, the journalist. Joan Burdeos He spoke directly about the left's failure to positively lead this fight. It's paradoxical that, while the poor and working-class are the ones who suffer the most from the consequences of climate change, they are the ones turning their backs on it. If we don't address the causes of this disaffection, it will be difficult to reverse.