Rurbans is a non-profit association established in 2003 in the county of Pallars Sobirà, a mountain Pyrenees’ area in the north of Catalonia. Its mission is to rejuvenate Pyrenean areas through innovative and participatory projects aiming at preserving and reviving their sociocultural heritage. Its flagship project is the School of Shepherds, which trains and supports shepherds and breeders, many of them coming from a non-farming background.

One of the key challenges, which turned out to be complex to address, is securing farmland for the new generation of peasants. Rurbans and a group of organisations and individual involved in local food systems and rural revitalisation, therefore decided to establish a specific organisation on access to land: Terra Franca.