Xuan Valladares is a livestock farmer and biologist. He was born in Madrid in 1966, son of emigrants with Asturian origins. He studied primary, secondary and higher education in this region, although he spent long periods of time in his village with his grandmother, which allowed him to keep his rural and Asturian roots alive. He has worked in very different jobs since he was eighteen years old, overlapping this with his university studies, and moved to live in Asturias in 1989.
He works as a farmer in organic farming since 1999 until 2012, when he developed his own line of guarantee with consumer members of the Sustainable Asturias network founded and promoted by him. His farm is visited by dozens of consumer members per year, where he shows the operation of traditional extensive livestock farming, natural food, etc., always promoting responsible consumption. He also shows the functioning of pastoral ecosystems in workshops of different NGOs, internships with volunteers (Fundación Oxígeno, ACA) and academic activities (Instituto de Llúces, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid). Traditional fire management always plays an important role in the workshops.
In 2010 he received the individual award as Exemplary Experience from the Felix Rodriguez de la Fuente Foundation, and in 2014 he was proposed by the Environmental Sciences Association as a candidate for the Ashoka awards, for his work in promoting rural associations and the defense of peasant rights. In 2012, his fair trade project north-north and responsible consumption “Sustainable Asturias” received the 2nd prize in the 1st Edition of Incubaeco, which awards projects with economic and social vision linked to sustainability. In July 2021 he was nominated as “Honorary Member” of the ICCA Consortium: “elected for his experience, interest and capabilities in favor of ICCAs -territories governed by local communities-“. In 2023 he is proposed as a member of the Regional IYRP Support Group (RISG) in Europe.
He has written numerous articles about sustainable agricultural models, and a book about pastoralism, El Brañeo en Asturias, published by the Real Instituto de Estudios Asturianos in 2005, and participated in others. He has also promoted and/or participated in the launching of different associations at regional level.
Since 2005, the year he began his political activity and appears as a representative figure of the Asturian countryside in many different forums. He participates in the media, both in different Radio and Television programs and in the written press, particularly that of the Principality of Asturias, and has led important campaigns in favor of extensive livestock farming (WWF, SEO-BirdLife, Fundación Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism). He also has a recurrent exchange of information with SEO, where fire management to sustain open ecosystems is one of the key points.
