Alfonso Darío Acevedo Rocha defends doctoral thesis on regenerative cattle ranching and soil restoration in Córdoba, Colombia

The research, supervised by Professor Jordi Morató Farreras at the UNESCO Chair on Sustainability at UPC, proposes a management model to restore soils dedicated to livestock farming and supports it with comparative case studies, biological indicators, and remote sensing.

On September 24, Alfonso Darío Acevedo Rocha defended his doctoral thesis at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya entitled “Management model for the restoration of soil dedicated to livestock farming in the department of Córdoba, Colombia. A contribution of regenerative cattle ranching to the sustainable development of the territory – comparative case studies”. The thesis, enrolled in the Doctoral Programme in Sustainability, was supervised by Professor Jordi Morató Farreras. The examination committee comprised Dr. Carlos Alberto Arias, Dr. Xavier Álvarez del Castillo, and Dr. Juan Fernando Salazar. Dr. Diego Paredes and Dr. Nicola Tollin served as external reviewers.

The study stems from a clear observation: extensive cattle ranching in Córdoba, one of Colombia's main livestock departments, has occupied far more land than its natural capacity allows, leading to soil compaction, erosion, and loss of biodiversity. Facing this scenario, the thesis analyzes the evolution of regenerative ranching globally and in Latin America, adapts a methodology to measure its efficiency on soil resources, and formulates a management model to restore affected soils.

The applied field research was conducted on farms across the four livestock subregions of the department: Sinú Medio, Sabanas, San Jorge, and Costanero. In each area, a regeneratively managed farm was compared to an adjacent conventional farm within the same soil unit. Soil macrofauna was used as a biological indicator, while spatial indicators relied on the NDVI vegetation index calculated from 2015 and 2023 Sentinel-2 imagery. Results were benchmarked against the Sustainable Development Goals using the Pressure-State-Response framework, alongside a SWOT analysis and scenario forecasting that served as the foundation for the proposed management model.

The findings demonstrate clear differences between the two systems. A total of 630 macrofauna individuals were recorded on regenerative farms compared to 133 on conventional ones, with a Shannon diversity index of 2.06 versus 0.59. Vegetation cover increased significantly on all analyzed regenerative farms; at Villa Alejandra, for instance, it rose from under 11% to over 70%. The main conclusion is that regenerative cattle ranching effectively serves as a soil restoration and sustainable management model with environmental, social, and economic benefits, proving viable in the Colombian low tropics. The thesis also acknowledges its scope: the case studies offer transferable insights to similar contexts rather than statistical generalizability, leaving direct carbon and profitability measurements as future lines of research.

The broader context surrounding this defense reinforces its relevance. This October, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Colombia announced an agreement with the FAO for technical and financial assistance under the National Regenerative Livestock Programme, aiming to benefit 100,000 smallholders with fewer than 50 head of cattle while incorporating an AI-powered monitoring system. Concurrently, the department of Córdoba presented a proposal for regenerative ranching for smallholders at the FAO forum in Rome to international investors, targeting municipalities including Montería and San Carlos—two areas where the field research was conducted. Funding for this initiative is currently being finalized.

This line of work continues through the Santa Isabel Foundation, directed by the doctoral candidate, which has secured international cooperation funding to implement regenerative ranching projects with 57 farmers in the municipalities of San Carlos and Montería. Furthermore, part of the thesis findings is currently being prepared for publication in a scientific journal.

Link to the thesis: https://hdl.handle.net/10803/698550