What is the case?

A gradual but steady impoverishment of the landscape is visible in the Netherlands. Traditional agricultural policies - focused on intensive, input-oriented crops in the context of monoculture - have led to reduced farm capacity to cope with extreme weather events. This became evident in June 2016 when heavy rainfall flooded large areas of farmland in the southern Netherlands and Flanders. This resulted in a lot of crop damage and crop failures. The agriculture sector therefore needs to become more resilient to climate change. This requires drastic changes in agricultural practices and policies.

What is the project doing about this?

The FARM LIFE project aims to create an environment in which farmers, agricultural organisations, entrepreneurs, knowledge institutes, ministries and social partners can exchange practical knowledge and tools that can directly facilitate the transition from conventional monocultures to climate-resilient forestry. To this end, the aforementioned target group will be encouraged to organise themselves into rural networks that last longer than this project and a transition toolkit will be built for these networks to effectively implement the transition to climate-resilient forestry or agroforestry. This toolkit contains tools for both the development of adaptive agricultural plans that can be contextualised in different circumstances and for value creation to make agroforesty-based food products more competitive.

What will the project deliver?

Farmer-driven business networks with a focus on sustainable agricultural value chains, sharing knowledge and using the transition toolkit in the transition to climate-resilient forestry. In addition, these networks could be extended to the whole of the Netherlands, Belgium and other European countries, where knowledge about the transition to climate-resilient forestry and the necessary tools can be exchanged.

Project details

Professor: Eurídice Leyequién Abarca, Management of Forested Landscapes
Duration: 2018 - 2023
Project partners: Bosboom B.V., Boefkik BV, Instituut voor landbouw-, Visserij- en voedingsonderzoek, Horst Beheer BV, Stichting Landgoed De Koekoek, Forestry Service Group BV
Funding: The Farm Life project, LIFE17 CCA/NL/000093, is funded by the LIFE EU programme.