further south, in the tiny village of Torvizcon in Andalucia, 31-year-old physiotherapist Adrian Moron Sanchez tells Al Jazeera how the population here has plummeted since he was growing up.

"When I was a kid there were 1,200 people in the village," Moron Sánchez says. "Now that has halved to 673, and lots of people from the other villages round here tell me the same kind of drop in population has happened in their towns too."

Climate change, he says, accompanied by increasingly inclement weather and heavy frosts has played a part in the mass emigration "because the almond and olive harvests have been bad, and a construction company went bust in 2012".

"It's really sad, when I go back, I walk through streets which were once full of life, but nowthey are dying on their feet."

People want to stay in the villages; it's a question of how and what they get in return Maria Andres

Any plan to slow depopulation requires spending in isolated areas to help retain people in these small communities.

"There needs to be far more investment and subsidies on offer from the regional government for small-scale, agroecological local businesses or crafts as a way of ensuring the benefits, financial or otherwise, remain in the villages," says Maria Andres, an activist with the Ecologistas en Accion pro-environmental movement.

She worked for 15 years on an extensive livestock project in Cuenca in central Spain, and says "people want to stay in the villages; it's a question of how and what they get in return".

In the battle against depopulation, some