Julio Donat, A Source Of Inspiration

This week’s Success Story comes from Soportújar, Spain.

Núria Pérez tells us that she is inspired by Julio Donat, a great specialist in botany, and co-author of the book “A tus plantas Alpujarra”, which deals with the biological diversity of this mountain region.

Encouraged by Julio’s work, Núria and three other women formed a group with one mission: to promote respect for trees and encourage their planting and sowing.

Below is an inspiring story shared by Núria.

Encourage citizens to plant, sow, and care for trees

We met Julio Donat several years ago. He lives in Padre Eterno ravine, in the Alpujarra (Granada, Spain). He is a wise man with massive knowledge about all the trees and plants that grow in that region.

Forty years ago, Julio moved to a very old farmhouse in Padre Eterno. To mitigate the extreme climate of the area, he started planting trees that would provide him with some shade and shelter.

Little by little, he transformed an arid area into a beautiful Mediterranean forest. Nowadays, there are more than 80 different species of trees in the forest he has created around his home!

These species include Yew, oaks, Juniperus sp, Cedrus sp, Pinus sp, cypress, walnut, Sorbus sp, False acacia, and many, many more.

Inspired by Julio’s story, we have been transcribing his knowledge and experience into a book.

The book talks about Julio’s experience and contains information about 75 different tree species in his forest. Accompanying each chapter are original watercolor illustrations made by Blanca Nieto, and in addition, there are more than 140 pictures taken by us.

We would like to create a social and environmental project. Once the book is finished, our goal would be to promote it around Granada, launching the book with Julio’s talks, exhibitions of the illustrations, and workshops in Julio’s forest.

With this project, we would like to promote tree respect by sharing their characteristics, benefits, medical properties, and ancient local traditions. Above all, we want to encourage citizens to plant, sow, and care for trees. Environmental awareness is essential to avoid climate change and desertification, which are so common in Andalusia and other regions of Spain. Re-greening the planet is everyone’s responsibility. Julio’s experience shows us that a single person can create a forest if they set their mind to it!

Now, this wonderful project needs financial support to print the book, which is already finished, so we can get into the next step.

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Thank you so much for telling us about Julio’s story, Núria. This is indeed impressive, and we hope that your book project will become a reality!

If anyone wants to support this book-project, please contact Núria: nuriapmassot@gmail.com

And, have a look at these articles to learn more about Julio and his incredible work:

https://inspyria.com/ar/facilitadores/julio-donat
https://www.amazon.de/plantas-Alpujarra-Julio-Donat-Mart%C3%ADn/dp/8461154576
https://festivalsulayr.es/artistas/reconocimiento-del-medio/

Image sources:
https://festivalsulayr.es/artistas/reconocimiento-del-medio/
https://festivalsulayr.es/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/DONAT-MINI.jpg