Rewilding Miranda Foundation
We work for the freedom of horses and the regeneration of natural landscapes
Renaturalization
At the Miranda Foundation we promote ecosystem recovery by reintroducing key species, such as horses in the wild, to promote natural processes. We believe in environmental restoration based on minimal human impact, allowing nature to regenerate its balance autonomously, preserving biodiversity and contributing to the fight against climate change.
Environmental impact
El sustainable grazing is a practice that involves allowing animals to graze freely in a space or ecosystem. This activity is essential for maintaining biodiversity and the health of natural ecosystems. Below, I explain how natural grazing improves the landscape and benefits both nature and society.
Vegetation control and forest fire prevention
Animals, such as horses or donkeys, help control the spread ofinvasive plant species and to maintain the balance between the different native plants. This keeps the undergrowth clean and the landscape in good condition. This practice is especially important in mountainous areas or near forests, where excessive vegetation can increase the risk of forest fires. By eating the shorter, denser vegetation, animals reduce the amount of fuel available for fires, contributing to a safer landscape.
Soil regeneration and improvement of soil quality
Free grazing also has a positive effect on soil health. Animals help distribute nutrients throughout the land through their droppings, which serve as natural fertilizer. In addition, their movement and footsteps help aerate the soil, improving its structure and allowing plant roots to grow more efficiently. This promotes the regeneration of ecosystems, plant diversity and the overall quality of the natural landscape.
Increased biodiversity
Animals that graze naturally play a fundamental role in creating diverse and dynamic landscapes. Their passage, feeding and movements contribute to creation of open spaces and semi-open areas that are ideal for a wide variety of animal and plant species. Lands that experience natural grazing are richer in biodiversity, as they allow different types of plants to grow that can be colonized by insects, birds and other animals. This promotes rich and healthy ecosystems that can support a wide range of wildlife.
The grazing models of the Miranda Foundation
To the Miranda Foundation We understand that there is no single grazing model that is valid for all territories or for all horses. After twenty years of experience, we have developed and applied different models of ecological management with equines that adapt both to the characteristics of the natural spaces and to the needs and capacities of each group of horses.
All our models share the same objective: to put the welfare of horses at the center and turn them into allies in the conservation of Nature and biodiversity, the regeneration of ecosystems and the prevention of large forest fires.
1. Rewilding or renaturalization
It is the model that represents the maximum level of ecological autonomy and the one that best expresses our vision of the future.
It consists of managing horses in very large natural spaces -hundreds or thousands of hectares- where the horses recover a completely wild behavior. The groups self-regulate, decide their movements, select grazing areas according to the seasons and interact with the landscape in a completely natural way, with monitoring but with minimal human intervention and open objectives. The horses propose and we observe, discover and accompany.
In this model we include both species that are essentially feral or considered "wild" (with scientific nuances) such as Przewalski's horses within the GISKA project in Boumort, and with breeds of great rusticity, such as the pottoka, as well as groups of recovered domestic horses that, after years of living in freedom, have established family groups and have developed a high resilience with the necessary capacities to live autonomously in highly complex territories. An example is the group of 16 domestic horses with recovered domestic horses, in which some individuals accustomed to living freely in the mountains were introduced, and which as a group has adapted in a surprising and very skillful way to a thousand-hectare estate in the South Cadí.
In these spaces, horses cease to be managed animals and become true ecological agents that shape the landscape and contribute to the natural functioning of ecosystems.
2. Super-extensive management
This model constitutes an intermediate level between complete renaturalization and more humanized management.
Horses also live in large areas, with high autonomy and very little human intervention, but these are mainly recovered domestic horses that still require some monitoring or that inhabit territories with an ownership structure or conditions that require somewhat more active management.
They continue to develop a very natural behavior, live in stable groups and play a very important ecological role in the conservation of open spaces, the diversification of the landscape mosaic and the prevention of fires.
This model often represents a transitional stage for horses that, over time, may become integrated into rewilding projects.
3. Regenerative and rotational grazing
It is the model most adapted to agroforestry mosaic territories, smaller or fragmented spaces and smallholder farms.
Management is based on the planned rotation of herds between different plots, respecting vegetation recovery times and seeking to regenerate soils, increase biodiversity and improve the quality of habitats.
This model allows a new opportunity to be given to senior horses, animals with some physical limitation or horses that, due to their profile, cannot live in large mountain spaces but continue to enjoy a free, social, useful and dignified life.
It is also an excellent adaptation stage for recovered horses before they can be incorporated into more extensive systems.
A flexible perspective, always at the service of the horses and the territory
Rewilding is the model that best represents the mission of the Miranda Foundation and our conservation horizon. However, our experience has shown us that each territory and each group of horses requires a different response.
That is why we work with these three models in a complementary way, choosing in each case the system that offers the most welfare to the animals and the most ecological benefits to the landscape.
This ability to integrate renaturalization, super-extensive management and regenerative grazing makes the Miranda Foundation a benchmark in ecological management with horses, capable of adapting strategies to each reality without ever losing sight of the essential objective: to return horses to their role as large natural herbivores and turn them into essential allies to recover more resilient, biodiverse and living ecosystems.
The winter headquarters is at El Garraf, where we graze more than 1.000 hectares of the Parc del Garraf and the properties of Can Ràfols dels Caus, Josep Camps and Xavier Ribes.
These spaces correspond mostly to the municipality of Olivella. A large territory of Mediterranean steppe and forest where horses do a good job of cleaning and preventing fires while feeding near the sea. The Garraf is the expansion.
A forest property that no one wants to graze because it is not an easy or palatable pasture for a productive meat livestock, but it is suitable for the health and well-being of our horses. In addition, the space, in the heart of Catalonia, has the strength of a property that wants to improve ecosystems and biodiversity, prevent fires, and that welcomes us with great enthusiasm!
Custody Agreement with Private Property. 1000 ha of which 6 are understood as pasture, but the horses are grazing where the chamois climb and have spent the winter very well, without the need to supplement their feed.
The Cadí headquarters is the territory that we have opened to municipalities such as Arsèguel in Alt Urgell where we are developing a project to recover pastures and the memory of the rural world, with the support of horses as agents of biodiversity and fire prevention.
Unique project with agreement with the Generalitat de Catalunya (Forests) and with Aid for the Conservation of the Boumort Collegats Protected Natural Area (GISKA Project) from the Department of Territory and Ecological Transition.