Improving ecosystem service provision from agricultural practices
LIFE is the EU’s financial instrument supporting environmental and nature conservation projects throughout the EU, as well as in some candidate, acceding and neighbouring countries. LIFE support for agricultural communities comes in many forms, including studies that identify practical options to help farmers find economically viable ways of mitigating climate change.
The benefits provided by ecosystems to humans
Ecosystem services have been referred to as “the benefits provided by ecosystems to humans”. Agricultural products like food and drink, energy and textiles rely heavily on ecosystem services provided by biodiversity, such as nutrient cycling, carbon storage, pest regulation and pollination. Promoting the healthy functioning of agricultural ecosystems thus helps to ensure the resilience of EU farm environments as they modernise to meet the growing demands for agri-commodities.
Strengthening ecosystem linkages within agriculture
LIFE has been at the forefront of this field and the Programme’s project portfolio contains an interesting series of innovations that show how farmers and rural development authorities can strengthen ecosystem linkages within agriculture. These projects demonstrate new techniques that can be applied to promote resilience against forces like climate change and so mitigate potential threats that might impede the ability of farm ecosystems to deliver essential goods and services.
Learning from best practice
One recently completed addition to LIFE’s agricultural ecosystem
project list is the award winning Seq-Cure initiative from
Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy. This project has shown how
organic waste materials, such as livestock manure and digest from
biogas generators, can be used beneficially by farmers as a soil
supplement to boost the growth of biomass fuel sources for
renewable energy. Seq-Cure won one of this year’s Best of the Best
LIFE Environment prizes and represents good practice in a number of
areas. In fact its outcomes have been so valuable that Italian
authorities used the LIFE project’s results to inform legislation
regulating sustainable approaches to biofuel production.
To read more on this agricultural practice visit the LIFE website.