More than half of the traditional chestnut groves in Spain’s Sierra de Aracena are now affected by land abandonment. The area still supports around 5,000 hectares of chestnut production, much of it within the Sierra de Aracena y Picos de Aroche Natural Park, but low profitability, ageing trees, pest pressure and limited opportunities for local processing are putting this long-established farming system under growing pressure.

Working with farmers, cooperatives, traders, processors and local initiatives such as Inspira Territorio, the researchers mapped the chestnut value chain and examined how governance, power and economic value are distributed. The analysis identified 15 barriers and 14 potential leverage points for an agroecological transformation. Long food supply chains dominate chestnut marketing and were associated with greater power imbalances and lower value retention by producers. In illustrative cases, farmers retained 56 percent of the final price in a short supply chain compared with 26 percent in a long one.

The research highlights producer cooperation, stronger territorial markets, local processing and more balanced governance as possible areas for intervention. It also stresses that long supply chains will remain important because local demand alone cannot absorb production. The proposed transformation therefore combines shorter market channels with efforts to make longer chains more transparent, equitable and compatible with the social and ecological functions of traditional chestnut landscapes.