Erasmus+ Project: Resilient Farmland: Promoting Education to Boost Ecosystem Services on Non-Productive Farmland
- Type Project
- Status Filled
- Execution 2019 -2022
- Assigned Budget 133.702,00 €
- Scope Europeo
- Autonomous community Cataluña
- Main source of financing Erasmus +
Agricultural land covers 40% of the EU's land area, and farming practices strongly influence biodiversity conservation, the provision of ecosystem services, climate change, and soil, air, and water quality. We applied for this project because we found that farmers across Europe, in the context of Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs), were implementing virtually only indirect, low-value conservation actions (96.5%), such as catch crops or nitrogen-fixing crops, over more direct, high-value conservation actions (only 3.5%), such as the conservation of field margins, woodlands, or ponds (non-productive agricultural land, NPAL).
Reports suggest that the reasons for avoiding direct conservation measures are a lack of understanding and/or knowledge about:
- The many benefits of NPAL conservation for agriculture and its productivity: pollination, pest control, water regulation, climate change mitigation, etc.
- The importance of conserving these areas for nature, health, and society. The current situation, coupled with the lack of success in greening the CAP, threatens to exacerbate the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the EU.
Therefore, we decided to design tools to strengthen the capacities of farmers and agricultural technicians in these areas.
- Five multiplier events, one per country, were held during the last 6 months of the project, to present the toolkit and videos created during the project.
- 167 registered attendees, almost all of them local/regional.
- Dissemination activities: Seven dissemination activities, including talks, seminars and conferences were carried out during the project, to disseminate our views and increase the impact of our initiative, with around 100 attendees (online and in person). 10 training sessions were held in five countries (several of them two days long), with 120 registered participants.
- Four volunteer sessions, involving 55 people, were held to implement NPAL modification or creation designs on agricultural farms in Italy and Spain.
- Three Learning-Teaching-Training Activities were held, involving more than 20 people. These activities were used to evaluate and provide external feedback to the coordination team in order to produce the most appropriate and balanced material possible. (Spain, Romania, and France)
The main objective of this project was to strengthen the capacity of farmers and agricultural technicians (knowledge, practical tools, and know-how) in the conservation of non-productive agricultural lands, in order to promote the implementation of the most direct and effective conservation actions.
The specific objectives defined in the presentation were:
- To develop free, open, customized, high-quality, practical, and complementary tools to develop the skills and empower farmers and their advisors and trainers.
- Provide free, tailored, high-quality online training for key stakeholders involved in NPAL conservation (non-productive agricultural land, such as ponds, hedgerows, field margins, or tree lines).
- Improve collaboration among farmers, agricultural and conservation technicians, and other stakeholders to preserve NPALs and make farmlands more resilient overall.
We believe all objectives have been achieved, despite the significant budgetary change the project underwent following the resolution. Perhaps the biggest change was the shift from an online training platform to a predominantly in-person/practical training platform, due to the elimination of IO3 and IO4 and their budgets.
The main outcome was the creation of a 150-page toolkit for farmers and agricultural technicians, entitled "Agricultural Benefits of Nature Conservation," in seven languages (although six were initially defined [English, Spanish, French, Italian, Czech, and Romanian], Catalan was later added). Initially, we suggested creating two different toolkits, but the agency suggested creating one for both target groups. After the project was finalized, the toolkits were planned to be exclusively digital, but were eventually printed in Spanish and Catalan (approximately 300 copies) thanks to financial support from the Department of Agriculture of Catalonia. Complementary materials were PowerPoint presentations (used in the in-person training sessions) and are available as summaries of the main tools in several languages (http://resifarms.eu/toolkit/).
The second most important outcome was the creation of four videos, recorded in the five participating countries (subtitled in seven languages), related to the key tools in the toolkit (ponds, hedges, open spaces, and "biodiversity, the core of agriculture"). The videos aimed to explain the content of the most important tools created in a simpler, more visual way and with examples.
- Coordinator/entity name: EMYS PRIVATE FOUNDATION
- Postal address: Ctra Santa Coloma 12, 1r 1a, 17421 Riudarenes
- Telephone: 972164957
- Fundació Privada Emys
- UNIÓN CHECA DE CONSERVADORES DE LA NATURALEZA
- COMITÉ PARA EL OASIS DE WWF EN LA ZONA FLORENTINA
- ASOCIACIÓN DE CONSERVATORIOS DE ESPACIOS NATURALES DEL LANGUEDOC-ROSELLÓN
- FUNDACIÓN ADEPT TRANSYLVANIA
- RED PARA LA CONSERVACION DE LA NATURALEZA
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