Final meetings in the three Thuringian project regions
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28 November 2024 – In mid-November, the final platform meetings of farmers in the three Thuringian project regions of Eichsfeld, Thuringian Basin, and East Thuringian Sandstone Area took place. At he gatherings, participants reflected on the results achieved so far, supplemented them with additional ideas, and planned their dissemination to relevant levels and institutions at the state, federal, and European levels.
The discussions focused on suggestions for the improvement of agri-environmental funding measures, ideas for new measures, and a concept for achieving environmental goals based on a stronger role of consulatncy. The latter was developed during the previous exchange meetings and reflects the practical needs and ideas of the farmers. It resembles the results-oriented implementation of environmental measures, as practised for example, in Austria. In this model, farmers agree conservation goals with a consultant and are then free to decide how to achieve them. The positive feedback from participants to this concept suggests that this model could also be a valuable element in German agri-environmental funding.
As another topic on the agenda, Guy Pe’er and Klara Bogs from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) conducted a SWOT analysis on the challenges and opportunities of agroecology within the CAP. This study, conducted in a total of eleven European countries, offered participants the opportunity to identify strengths and weaknesses of EU policy regarding environmentally friendly agricultural practices and to contribute suggestions for improvement.
Although the CAP4GI project is coming to an end, there are new perspectives for participants who have taken an interest in the topic: At the end of the events, reference was made to the ‘Zukunftsweg Landwirtschaft und Biodiversität in Thüringen’ project (‘Future Path of Agriculture and Biodiversity in Thuringia'), which is a joint initiative of the Thuringian Farmers' Association, Thüringer Ökoherz, BUND Thüringen and NABU Thüringen and will start in January 2025. Similar to CAP4GI, the aim here is to develop a common basis for economically viable and ecologically valuable agriculture for Thuringia. Practitioners, i.e. farmers, are once again in demand. The results from CAP4GI will also be passed on to the project.
Despite the slightly lower number of participants this time, the final platform meetings once again provided space for a lively exchange of ideas. With the conclusion of this series, CAP4GI has provided important impetus for the future design of agri-environmental policy and shown that agriculture and nature conservation can be linked through cooperation and open dialogue - a promising approach for a sustainable future.