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Partnership for Biodiversity Protection in Viticulture in Europe
Start date: Sep 1, 2015, End date: Aug 31, 2018 PROJECT  FINISHED 

The loss of biodiversity, alongside climate change, is currently one of the largest and most important challenges. It is believed that the current rate of species extinction, due to human influences, is several times higher than the natural extinction rate. Agriculture is the most important land use in Europe, with around 50% of the surface used for agricultural production. The relationship between EU agriculture and biodiversity has two faces. In the past, agriculture significantly contributed to increasing the diversity of landscapes and species in Europe, on one hand. On the other, intensive agriculture is one of the main drivers of biodiversity loss in the cultural landscape. Today, sound knowledge is available regarding food production and protection of biodiversity and ecosystems. But the knowledge is still not sufficiently considered and production methods not sufficiently adapted. One of the reasons is that biodiversity is still not a subject of a farmer´s education or further training nor do they receive consulting directly on the farm. The EU is a leading producer of wine (DG AGRI). Spain, Portugal and Turkey belong to the top ten countries in Europe with the largest vineyards – organic as well as conventional ones. Biodiversity assessment in agriculture is still quite innovative compared to other agrienvironmental indicators such as climate change, nutrient balances etc.. The project focuses on organic vine growers - farmers producing grapes in the vineyards - with a special focus on viticulture but taking sultana producers also into account. Organic vine growers have a self-motivation to improve their biodiversity performance because well-functioning ecosystems and a high diversity in earth and between vine rows are necessary for healthy grapes and a good quality. But vine growers do not carry out systematic analysis of their impacts on biodiversity on their whole farm and as they are in general small farms, run only by their owners, they do not have time to participate at time intensive and wide-ranging training courses. The partnership consists of nature conservation organizations and farmers/wine growers associations in Germany, Spain and Portugal as well as of an organic agriculture company in Turkey. The project aims on the exchange of experiences partner organizations made in the issue of vine growing and biodiversity to school each other and to develop information materials and specific biodiversity training modules. Vine growers will be schooled with the help of these materials on basic biodiversity knowledge and trained with the modules in the systematic analyses of their impacts on biodiversity. They additionally will receive individual trainings performed directly on the farm so they can implement recommendations for improvements directly into their daily work. With the results and experiences a Biodiversity Program – a roadmap for biodiversity improvements at farm level will be developed to help vine growers not participated at the training to enhance their biodiversity performance as well. Due to this approach time expenditure for further schooling activities for vine growers is reduced, vine growers have the knowledge to adapt production methods and can thereby specify their professional education and increase competitiveness. Moreover the sensitivity and knowledge of vine growers can be raised in these cultivation areas. Training of local NGOs ensures that vine growers will be schooled and new co-operations/training activities will be initiated and continued even after the funding period. And the project also supports the objectives of EU policy on biodiversity and contributes to achieve the objective of the EU Biodiversity Strategy.
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