Sown Biodiverse Pastures Project

Grassland Permanent crops Mixed crops

Country

Portugal

Region

Southern Europe

Approach

Subsidies

Funding

Public

This large-scale Portuguese project, run by Terraprima, demonstrated a model for paying farmers for ecosystem services. Between 2009 and 2012, 1,000 farmers were compensated for sowing 50,000 hectares of biodiverse pastures, which improved soil health, forage quality, and sequestered significant amounts of atmospheric CO2.