How LAGs support climate objectives
As European regions look for ways to adapt to climate change, LAGs are proving to be architects of climate resilience for rural communities.
Rural communities are on the front line of climate change. Drought, flooding, biodiversity loss and land degradation are no longer abstract risks but daily realities across Europe. Yet local action often stalls. Not because people do not care, but because their interests often collide: farmers versus conservationists, short-term economics versus long-term sustainability and private concerns versus collective needs.
This is where Local Action Groups (LAGs) come into their own. They bring together those who rarely sit at the same table and create the conditions for dialogue. Their role is not simply to fund projects, but to hold space where shared solutions can emerge.
Romania: restoring water, rebuilding trust
For almost a decade, in the village of Daia, in Transylvania, water scarcity had become part of daily life, with taps running dry for days at a time. This was once a landscape shaped by water. springs, streams and wells sustained generations. In the 1980s, however, large-scale drainage works, designed to intensify agricultural production under the communist regime, fundamentally altered the valley’s hydrology. Climate pressures have since compounded the damage.
For the village’s 250 inhabitants, including artisanal cheese producers and small-scale farmers, water scarcity was a direct threat to livelihoods. The question became urgent: how do you bring the water back?
In 2023, water management expert Dr Zoltán Hajdú proposed a nature-based approach to restore water retention. The idea was initially met with scepticism. It gained traction when the Homoród-Küküllő LAG - which had been looking for pioneer projects in nature restoration and water retention - stepped in as facilitator. The LAG connected the community with expertise and funding through the Communities for Climate (C4C) programme and helped shape a concrete water restoration plan.
It was during a study visit to Slovakia – co-funded by the LAG – that a shift occurred. There, Daia farmers saw simple, low-cost weirs already working in a similar landscape. These small dams, built to slow and retain water, offered a practical way to restore water in the landscape without complex infrastructure. The solution was not only effective but also realistic for a small community. By summer 2025, more than 130 volunteers had built ten such structures in Daia.
Yet the most important change was less tangible:
Unfamiliar, novel ideas initiated by younger or female individuals can be dismissed easily in rural and farming societies. Recognition by the leadership of the LAG ensured the initiative was taken seriously and contributed to good participation in community discussions and events. The active participation of the LAG in the activities (farmers meetings, study trips, community works, a university camp) was essential and encouraging for a community which had long lost its trust in itself to work together for a common good.
Alongside community mobilisation, the LAG also connected institutions that rarely collaborate, including water, environmental and agricultural authorities. All were aware of the problem, but none could act alone. The LAG created a bridge between them. Its director, László Lázár, who also leads the rural development faculty at the local university, encouraged students to participate in local initiatives to inspire the next generation of professionals.
What started as one village's response to water scarcity is now shaping a broader conversation about nature-based solutions across the region. An institutional ecosystem is slowly emerging. Just as importantly, it has helped rebuild trust: between neighbours, between generations and between citizens and institutions. This is climate resilience in practice. And it illustrates what LEADER does best.
Ireland: making a commercial case for sustainability
In Ireland’s midlands, the challenge takes a different form. The region is undergoing a ‘Just Transition’: a shift away from peat-based industries towards a low-carbon, green economy. This transition brings both opportunity and uncertainty, particularly for small rural businesses.
In County Offaly, the Offaly Local Development Company (OLDC) identified a gap. Many small and medium-sized enterprises, especially in the creative and agri-food sectors, were already working in sustainable ways and, as Aileen Dufy, Rural Development Team Leader at OLDC explains, had “the unique capacity... to lead across all three pillars of sustainability, economic, environmental and social - while also acting as drivers of wider rural transformation”. However, they often lacked the language, confidence and tools to communicate it or position themselves within the emerging green economy.
The Create Green programme was designed to address this. Rather than asking businesses to change what they do, it helps them articulate it by aligning existing practices with sustainability standards, market expectations and circular economy principles.
Acting as a facilitator, OLDC brought together businesses from different sectors, creating a space for exchange and peer learning. In workshops and informal meet-ups, business owners who had previously worked in isolation began to compare approaches, from sourcing material to reducing waste.
As Roisin Lennon, CEO at OLDC, notes: “They began to openly share experiences, challenges, and practical solutions, creating a supportive peer network that extended beyond the formal programme. This exchange of knowledge and lived experience was a critical success factor and demonstrated the value of a community-led, participatory approach.”
This shared space proved to be as valuable as formal training. It marked a shift from individual efforts to a collective transition.
Dooley’s Wool offers a clear example. This family-run company produces wool bedding using fully traceable Irish wool, combining traditional knowledge with environmentally responsible production. Through Create Green, the business refined how it tells its story, aligning it with the expectations of buyers increasingly focused on conscious consumption.
In this way, the LAG helped turn sustainability from a quiet practice into a visible asset. It also ensured that the green transition is not experienced as a burden, but as an economic opportunity rooted in local identity.
The LEADER approach in practice
Across both examples, a common pattern emerges. Climate action is not only technical; it is social. It depends on trust, dialogue and the ability to connect different forms of knowledge.
LEADER does not replace policy frameworks. It makes them work in practice by grounding them in local realities. In both Romania and Ireland, the LAG did not arrive with ready-made answers. Instead, it allowed solutions to emerge from the community itself.
As climate pressures intensify, this function becomes increasingly important. By enabling cooperation where there was once fragmentation, LAGs are helping rural communities move from reacting to change to actively shaping more resilient futures.
