Agricultural Socioecological Systems

Resilience, sustainability and governance of agricultural systems in the face of global change.

Human well-being, resource sustainability and food security in traditional agrifood systems are increasingly challenged by the growing social and environmental uncertainties of our global world. The reference research group on Agricultural Socioecological systems, SISEC, aims to understand how agrifood systems respond to these challenges and to find robust solutions for their successful adaptation to globalization and climate change.

SISEC research focuses on the governance, resilience and sustainability of agricultural and livestock systems, and examines the strong interactions between the social, ecological and institutional components of agrifood systems. The group is formed by a multidisciplinary team from the University of Zaragoza (UNIZAR) and Agri-Food Research and Technology Centre of Aragon (CITA). Our research articulates into five main areas:

Last news

CITA Leads the European ECOPESIA Project to Reward Agriculture that Benefits Ecosystems and Biodiversity

On 23 and 24 September, the kick-off meeting of the European ECOPESIA project (Enhancing climate and ecosystem outcomes through the promotion and upscaling of payments for environmental services in agriculture) was held at the headquarters of CITA (Aragonese Center for Agri-Food Research and Technology), with the attendance of more than 40 people from 20 institutions in 11 countries.

The ECOPESIA project aims to promote the development of Payments for Ecosystem Services (PES), economic incentives aimed at farmers and livestock breeders who carry out actions that benefit the environment: biodiversity conservation, improvement of soil and water quality, carbon capture, or reduction of fire risk through appropriate land management.

The solutions developed will be tested in eight demonstration pilots spread across six European countries: in Spain, focusing on biomass reduction in forest environments through extensive livestock farming; in Portugal, the management of the montado (dehesa), the regeneration of cork oak trees for cork production; in France, the conversion to organic production in drinking water catchment areas; in the Netherlands, biodiversity in dairy farming landscapes; and in Croatia and Romania, crowdfunding schemes that link biodiversity, rural tourism, and local community participation.

At the end of the project, ECOPESIA expects to involve at least 175 farmers and livestock breeders and mobilize one million euros in private funding to support actions that benefit the climate and ecosystems.

Last publications:

Farmers may support pollinator conservation but still resist agri-environmental policies https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.70428
This paper explores research on extensive livestock systems and the balance of attention across their ecological, social, institutional, and governance dimensions. https://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol31/iss2/art36

Outreach activities:

Alicia Tenza-Peral attended the 16th IRSA World Congress + 64th SOBER Congress (“Politics for Nature, Food and Nutrition in times of uncertainty and climate change”, 19–23 July 2026, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil), where she co-coordinated a working group together with Irene Pérez-Ibarra, Thea Wiesli and Rike Stotten, and presented three papers: “Structural archetypes of rural governance: Comparing institutional configurations across agrarian social-ecological systems” (with D.J. Soler Navarro, L.X. Estévez Moreno and I. Pérez-Ibarra); “Diversity and Adaptability of Governance Systems for Shared Resources and Infrastructures” (with I. Pérez-Ibarra, L.X. Estévez Moreno, I. Lare David and F.J. Lacosta García); and “Resilience trade-offs in extensive livestock systems: A comparative structural analysis” (with D.J. Soler Navarro, A. Giménez Casalduero and I. Pérez-Ibarra).
Group members Alicia Tenza-Peral, Ismael Lare-David and Irene Pérez-Ibarra took part in the 4th Annual IGRI Virtual Conference (16–18 September 2026). Alicia Tenza-Peral and Ismael Lare-David participated in the interactive session “Coding Best Practices for Institutional Grammar.” On 18 September, Alicia Tenza-Peral presented “Linking Institutional Structure and Function through Institutional Grammar and a Rule Taxonomy” (with I. Lare-David, L.X. Estévez-Moreno, F.J. Lacosta-García and I. Pérez-Ibarra); she and Irene Pérez-Ibarra were also co-authors, alongside C.A. Prieto Valero, A. Mirzaei, J.S. Uribe Quintero, I. Theesfeld and T. Olivier, on “Testing the Reliability of Institutional Grammar in Non-English Contexts”, presented in the same session.
The group member Blanca Vidao and other professors in the field of Education, conducted an activity to promote Sociology through games for the general public during the European Researchers’ Night, held on the 25th September in Huesca (Plaza Navarra) from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m
Enrique Muñoz is doing a research stay at Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) to model the evolution of ecosystem services in mountain and rural areas.
Dr. Carlos Bopp conducted a research stay at the University of Zaragoza, focusing on the study of the governance of Managed Aquifer Recharge (MAR) systems and the institutional factors that influence the adoption of these techniques by farmers in central Chile. This activity took place in collaboration with Dr. Irene Pérez-Ibarra, as part of the FONDECYT Initiation Project 11260054 led by the visiting researcher.
Participation by the group members, Blanca Vidao and Carlota Vegas, in the 16th Spanish Congress of Sociology: Challenges, Evidence, Solutions (Bilbao, July 2026) with the following presentations: “Sociocultural and Relational Dimensions of Nature’s Contributions to People (NCP) in Ibero-American Rural Communities” and “Subjective Dimensions of Success and Climate Resilience in Agricultural Communities: An International Comparative Study.”