Latest reports & factsheets from EU CAP Network Focus Groups
Enhancing biodiversity on farmland via high-diversity landscape features, social farming & innovations, recovery of abandoned agricultural lands: Read the EU CAP Network Focus Groups' reports & factsheets.
Three EU CAP Network Focus Groups have published their reports presenting key needs for research from practice and ideas for innovative solutions to be tested.
Focus Group 'Enhancing the biodiversity on farmland through high-diversity landscape features'
Agricultural landscape features are areas of natural or semi-natural habitats in various size ranges. Irrespective of their size, they offer major contributions to ecosystem services and biodiversity. They have long-standing historical and cultural roots in the agricultural landscapes of Europe, but have become threatened following the rise of intensive agriculture. This Focus Group worked on how to maintain, enhance and create High-Diversity Landscape Features (HDLF) that positively impact farmland biodiversity. The group identified challenges and opportunities for farmers, innovative HDLFs, good practices for maintaining HDLFs and how they can bring about economic benefits, and capacity building needs. Find all of these and more in the report and factsheet.
Focus Group 'Social farming and innovations'
Through its specific objectives, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) gives particular support for innovative solutions that help address social challenges, stimulating social inclusion and local development in agriculture, forestry and rural areas. The members of the Focus Group have been working together, bringing together their experiences, sharing knowledge and innovation and identifying possible solutions to common barriers related to social farming. Their main focus was - how can social farming contribute to innovation in agriculture while strengthening the multi-functional role of agriculture and connecting people from urban and rural areas. The report and factsheet are now available.
Focus Group 'Recovery of abandoned agricultural lands'
Abandoned farmland is a major issue in Europe, especially in remote areas with scarce populations. The risks associated with it include aggravated natural disasters such as fires and floods, loss of biodiversity, and accentuated depopulation. This Focus Group identified sustainable management solutions and strategies for the recovery of abandoned land, and how to overcome barriers which may hinder their application. These can be found, as well as many other useful good practices and research needs, in the factsheet and report produced by this Focus Group.
More on EU CAP Network Focus Groups
EU CAP Network Focus Groups are temporary groups of selected experts focusing on a specific subject, sharing knowledge and experience.
Three new EU CAP Network Focus Groups for 2023-2024 are just starting on: Regenerative agriculture for soil health, Crop associations including Milpa and protein crops and Competitive and resilient mountain areas. Under the EIP-AGRI, 46 Focus Groups were set up between 2013 and 2021. Browse all the results.
Calls for Focus Group experts are released every year. Subscribe to the EU CAP Network newsletter on Innovation & knowledge exchange | EIP-AGRI to hear first about the calls.
