Members of the BETA Technological Centre, coordinator of the TRANSITION project, were invited as panellists to the EMEA Policy Session “Agroforestry sector in the EU: Towards novel policies and financing frameworks” togheter with other colleagues from national and European relevant instutions such as Center of Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF), Forest Science and Technology Centre of Catalonia (CTFC), Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) and European Agroforestry Federation (EURAF), and it was moderated by Consuelo Varela Ortega, Professor Emeritus at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) and Member of the Executive Board of EMEA.
The session was celebrated on 28th June 2023 in the Sant Pau Complex, in Barcelona, and some relevant topics in agroforestry sector in the EU were addressed. The panellists discussed about the latest development and knowledge on finance and policies applicable to the agroforestry sector in the EU, as well as about the role of agroforestry as a multifunctional system that can provide multiple environmental, social, and economic benefits in EU policies. They also explained relevant initiatives for agroforestry and the main gaps in existing financing mechanisms (public and private) and policies for agroforestry and opportunities for improvement in Europe.
The session also contributed to search for an acceleration of effective and sustainable financing of the agroforestry sector at national and EU level and put the economic value of the ecosystem services and environmental benefits provided by agroforestry systems at the center of the financial focus and to the contribution of agroforestry to climate change mitigation through its possible future integration into carbon markets and the role of carbon farming at the EU level. Finally, they discussed about what are the expected changes to come and recommendations towards novel policies and financing frameworks in the agroforestry sector in the EU.
Our team expose the TRANSITION project and present the results of the interviews performed in WP4 with farmers, technicians, politicians, and decision-makers to find the main barriers and opportunities to the implementation and maintenance of the agroforestry systems in the Mediterranean region. They highlighted the Mediterranean bias in the European Common Agricultural Policy and the importance of performing participatory approaches to respond to real needs of each area.
They were delighted to assist to this session and look forward for further collaborations with other projects which also work in the field of agroforestry policies.
