Learn about the company’s initiatives aimed to protect and improve the ecosystems that surround the vineyards.

Maintaining a balanced ecosystem is very positive for the development of the vine and its surroundings, which is why Viña Concha y Toro places a special focus on initiatives that increase the amount of pollinating insects, improve existing organic matter and enhance biodiversity in the place.

Viña Cono Sur is characterized by the organic management of its vineyards in the use of geese, sheep and birds in the control of different pests and weeds. The interrow crops fulfil the function of providing and promoting biodiversity, incorporating flowers and plants that attract natural enemies from harmful pests, but also fulfil other roles such as soil conservation, as they prevent erosion, maintain moisture and promote nitrogen fixation.

On the other hand, the use of biological corridors has a recovery effect on the ecosystem, as they help restore the landscape by transforming productive areas into places that provide ecosystem services such as shelter for predators and for plants that attract natural enemies from pests that are harmful to life. These ecosystem services contribute to the sustainability of Cono Sur’s organic project.

Concha y Toro, for its part, established the Agricultural Ecosystem Management Programme to recover natural ecosystems from flora and fauna and to restore the landscape to the scale of the agricultural activity. In this context, the vineyard is working on two pilots to incorporate wildlife houses, which will provide shelter to different species of native birds, increasing the abundance of fauna in the ecosystem and, at the same time, acting as biological pest controllers.

On the other hand, Concha y Toro incorporated the ‘Operation Pollinator’ project in two of its vineyards -in Pirque and Casablanca- together with Syngenta, a global agricultural technology company. This consists of the implementation of flower orchards to increase the amount of pollinating insects in agricultural parcels. Each orchard is created and designed in a thorough manner to respond to each specific habitat, adapting to the local conditions of each farm and to the native insects that inhabit it. The initiative applied in Casablanca won for its commitment in the category ‘Chilean bumble bee’ of the Syngenta 2020 Awards for Biodiversity Promotion in Agriculture.

The ‘AgBio’ and Multi-functional Native Borders projects are added to this, with the aim of increasing agricultural biodiversity through the implementation of shelter in the interrows and the establishment of herbaceous, shrub and géophytes. Both projects will contribute to an increase in the presence of pollinating insects, and will contribute to the incorporation of organic matter into the soil.

Along with these initiatives, this past year Concha y Toro has advanced in pilot ecological restoration activities in vineyards in Maipo and Casablanca, by establishing reforestation with native tree and shrub species in order to recover and improve the biological corridors already existing in these ecosystems. This vineyard restoration programme has been strengthened by the recent Strategic Alliance for Native Forests with the National Forestry Corporation and in collaboration with volunteer activities between various areas of the company.