Pilot cases
Mater Composta Bioterritorial Feedback Systems
Lighthouse: Urban Rural
Localization in Cáceres

Community social characterization

The pilot project in Caceres Municipality it is been design 
including in a participatory approach the organic waste producers as: restaurants, scholar cantines, homesteads, and 
local composters as: families in 3 gardens, the social food 
gardeners in public plots, and some small scale farmer in 
less than 10 km from the city. The main partner is Caceres 
Municipality, and the Popular University of Caceres.

Governance in the pilot case

Provincial Council of Cáceres (Region Level), Municipality of 
Cáceres, Mas Medio (Waste Management Consortium) and 
Municipalities of less than 2.000 inhabitants.

Motivation of the pilot

Spanish legislation obligate to municipalities with less than 
5000 inhab to recolte and treat organic matter separately in 
2024. With this pilot case we had proposed to Caceres Provincial Government and its Public Company MAS MEDIO to design the more community and the more circular and ecological efficiente solution as a pilot project to assess and furthermore incorporate to their main provincial organic solution according with NbS and indicators.

Local governance profile

Caceres Municipality 
There will be a Eco-System of Composting Experiences operating at the region, some of them will be manage by the Municipal Councils and some others by a network of Associations and NGOs that are being training by Economías 
BioRegionales.

Target group

Promote governance in decision-making between citizens, 
companies and municipalities to decide and co-govern the most interesting environmental, economic and social solutions to treat bio-waste.

Existing NBS applications and initiatives

Caceres Municipality has a social communal garden with 20 
users, and enhancing and enlarging to other three organic 
gardens and 50 users and vegetable small entrepreneurship. 
Composting biowaste as organic fertilizer is a NbS to increase
organic matter in soil, micro biodiversity, carbon mitigation 
and sequestration.

Small scale NBS testing

SIMBIO is a program to design the scope of biowaste generation and treatment, and that allows selecting solutions that are less costly climatically and more recirculating resources.

Leverage resources for NBS

Organic local waste as organic local fertilizer, local food vegetable production and seasonal and organic consumption to close more efficiently the organic flow in Territorial Food Systems.

Challenges raised during the preparatory meetings

From february to June 2023 the project team of EBR has 
had different meeting with the technical services of Caceres 
Municipality and Caceres Province in order to explain the 
assessment to their administration for designing in a participatory way, with indicators of NbS the best community and natural based solution. During may has been the local, provincial and regional elections and the decision makers has renounced or change for or the elected responsables of the areas, so that we expect the inauguration for design further, especially with the province ir order to chose the territory and communities to practice

Environmental Challenges

Fulled landfilled and obligation of biowaste collection and 
treatment. Reduction of carbon emissions and increase of 
carbon sequestration in local agricultural soils, increasing soil 
biodiversity and social consciousness and neighbourhood 
community engagement 
The high requirements from the regional Environmental 
Assessment Services, that demand the same for huge composting low quality plants, as for small scale farming. It is necessary to assess, confirm and demonstrate the enhancement of the environmental impact from small scale and social initiatives to large scale and big companies. In order to assess the differences it is necessary to consider: soil remotion, reduce GH emissions on transport, reduce GH emissions on treatment, etc.

Who owns the land?

There will be solutions in public municipal land of the 
Caceres Municipality, social producing vegetable gardens, 
and child gardens.
We have contact with some farmers interested in composting 
bio urban waste and producing their own fertilizer in private 
agriculture plots.

Social Challenges

The quality of the organic waste collection is critical to provide for a small scale farming focused on urban close food systems. The balance between local government and social and neighbourhood participation is a critical aspect from closing those circular Territorial Food Systems.

Related projects to create synergies

In october 2024 the Network of decentralised composting 
(Composta en Red) accepted in their 2022 assembly realize the annual seminar in Caceres , trying to involved some local council or NGO in their partnership, EBR is part of this national association from 2018 as as active board partner.

Economic Challenges

Not increase taxes and creating more natural based solution 
jobs on organic agriculture with the biowastes.
Local farming or gardening composting treatment needs to 
be cheaper in order to enlarge the model, if compared with 
large scale (low NbS). It is necessary to compete on prices 
(and social engagement) compared with large companies 
and centralising solutions.

Possible local partners, associations, initiatives and champions to be engaged

Parent school associations, companies of conventional waste 
treatment, restaurant and cantines. Farmers and eventually 
farmers cooperatives or associations.