Across rural Europe, land abandonment is often viewed as a problem, one associated with the decline of agriculture, loss of livelihoods, and the fading of cultural landscapes. But in southeastern Portugal, a different story is unfolding. This narrative centres not on decline, but on quiet, persistent recovery: a process in which nature returns, unprompted, to places once degraded by overuse.
Since 2019, a research line led at NOVA FCSH in collaboration with Professors Maria José Roxo and Adolfo Calvo-Cases has focused on understanding what happens after agricultural land is abandoned in semi-arid Mediterranean ecosystems. In the bushlands and drylands of Baixo Alentejo, where fragile soils and intense land use once combined to accelerate erosion and degradation, the end of farming often marks the beginning of ecological restoration.
At the heart of this work is a rare experimental site: the Centro Experimental de Erosão de Vale Formoso, where 17 long-term erosion monitoring plots were left untouched after 2008. Originally established to study soil losses under different land uses and management practices, the site accidentally became a living lab for post-abandonment ecological dynamics. What emerged was a compelling pattern: natural vegetation returning, soil organic carbon increasing, and ecological functions gradually being restored, without human intervention.
To document this process, the research combined fieldwork, remote sensing, drone-based vegetation monitoring, and soil laboratory analysis. This allowed for the spatial modelling of changes in carbon stocks and vegetation cover. Field visits and interviews with local actors further grounded the work in real landscapes and lived experience.
The findings are both scientifically and socially significant. They provide measurable evidence that poor, degraded lands can recover regulating and supporting ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, water retention, and biodiversity conservation. In a region marked by climate vulnerability and demographic decline, this recovery is a form of resilience.
From these insights, a broad ecosystem of impact has grown. The research supported two Erasmus+ projects (CarboNostrum and MedSEVa) that translated academic findings into practical tools for landowners, farmers, and educators. CarboNostrum developed a multilingual b-learning course in five countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey), with over 50 participants in the first edition, and 800 enrolled in the online course page, as well as a handbook for smallholder farmers adapting to climate change (with over 700 reads), and overall dissemination materials reaching over 25 000 people. MedSEVa is now working to value Mediterranean shrublands and promote sustainable uses of native plant species for food, cosmetics, and ecosystem restoration.
The work also led to the creation of CarBio-Solo, a university-affiliated spin-off dedicated to developing carbon baselines and ecosystem service assessments for recovering landscapes. CarBio-Solo offers landowners and cooperatives the ability to measure and monetize ecosystem services on marginal lands, helping unlock new economic opportunities while supporting ecological regeneration.
The work has also been shared with diverse audiences, from international scientific communities to local and regional stakeholders. Presentations at geomorphology and remote sensing conferences helped test and refine the research in dialogue with peers. Recognition at events like the European Association of Remote Sensing Laboratories Symposium reflected not just the technical contribution, but the relevance of the work to ongoing conversations around land use, climate, and ecological monitoring.
Beyond academia and entrepreneurship, the project is trying to influence how abandonment is perceived by local institutions. In workshops with municipalities and regional stakeholders, the research has been used to inform restoration priorities and climate adaptation planning. Where once abandonment was seen as synonymous with degradation, it may now be considered a potential entry point for ecological and economic renewal.
Visually, the impact is tangible. Time-series imagery and canopy height models show landscapes greening year by year. Shrublands and native species are reclaiming old fields and erosion scars. Students, farmers, and policymakers have walked the same abandoned plots where recovery was once difficult to imagine.
This is not a story of reversing abandonment or reoccupying lost territories, but about seeing ‘abandoned’ land differently: recognizing its ecological potential, its climate value, and its place in a more socially and culturally resilient future. In a world challenged by climate uncertainty and rural change, this research offers a hopeful message: that even in places of loss, recovery is possible.
By linking field-based observation with satellite data, participatory engagement, and applied tools, this work connects scientific insight with real-world action. It shows that ecological knowledge, if made visible, accessible, and relevant, can reshape how land is valued, how decisions are made, and how global challenges can be addressed with local action in the field.
Nature’s comeback is not just a biological process. It is a narrative of resilience, adaptation, and regeneration, one that starts with letting the land breathe again.
Territorial decisions must be made differently: through adaptive planning, grounded in rigorous diagnosis of different geographic realities. In poor and degraded lands, already vulnerable to climate change and desertification, such knowledge guides restoration, protects livelihoods, and helps us maintain a more integrated organisation of landscapes, where human activity and ecosystems coexist in balance.
Maria José Roxo