The project will identify new ways to manage and improve rural landscapes. It consists of a number of pilots addressing enhanced ecological value and preserved regional and cultural identity. Working with farmers and other stakeholders, this should still ensure sufficient economic opportunities for farmers.

The aim of the project is to identify new ways to maintain and improve rural landscapes with enhanced ecological value and with preserved cultural identity. This will be done in co-operation with both farmers and stakeholders in order to test best practices with respect to European CAP-policy and relevant EU legislation. The project will stimulate integrated policy making at all levels.

Expected Outcomes

The project has four main themes. The first of these is better protection of biodiversity, which is being threatened by the rationalisation of modern agricultural practice. The second theme is linked to integrated cultural identity and landscape development in order to acknowledge the non-agricultural functions of rural areas. Thirdly, the project will address the shrinking economic vitality of large parts of the countryside. Finally, the project will contribute to future perspectives of European policy on sustainable agriculture.

Activities

Eight pilot projects cover the four main themes in varying degrees. Workshops and so-called Trunk Exhibitions are held to diffuse the results of and experiences from these pilot projects. (In a Trunk Exhibition, one partner fills a trunk with materials from his part of the project. This trunk is then exhibited at the location of another partner.) The eight pilot projects are: - Fryslân (NL): new ways will be developed to protect meadow birds, which are a crucial element in regional cultural identity; - two pilot projects in Drenthe (NL): the first focuses on the relation between nature and agriculture in the National Landscape of the Drentsche Aa, the other on the creation of a quality seal called ?Drents Goed?, to be used for the meat produced by the cattle herds that are deployed for landscape maintenance. - Telemark (N): like the meadow birds in Friesland, the local Telemark cattle is both in danger of disappearance and a central element for the regional identity. Steps will be taken to ensure the continuity of this race and the development of an information centre on the Telemark cattle. - West Flanders (B): the ecological values of the heterogeneous rural landscapes of Vlaanderen will be acknowledged and enhanced by the creation of a stewardship scheme, along with various other measures. - Lethe river (G): water and soil quality will be improved, a.o. by carefully cleaning ditches, restoring meanders and creating bufferzones along surface waters. - in East England (UK) data on bird populations will be used as an indicator in choosing best agricultural and ecological practice, following and expanding upon the Unilever Sustainable Agriculture Initiative which formulated standards on Integrated Farm Management. - on the Shetland Islands (UK) diversification will be stressed, since the EU Common Agricultural Policy has led to a dominance of sheep, ousting indigenous crops and native breeds of cattle.

Reported Outcomes

The aim of the project is to identify new ways to maintain and improve rural landscapes with enhanced ecological value and with preserved cultural identity. This will be done in co-operation with both farmers and stakeholders in order to test best practices with respect to European CAP-policy and relevant EU legislation. The project will stimulate integrated policy making at all levels. Well into the implementation phase, the work of the Farmers for Nature partners has attracted the interest of a large number of stakeholders. For example, 90 farmers have signed contracts to implement project measures and 122 experts have been actively involved in the project. The project works extensively with farmers who take part in study groups, carry out some of the experiments on their land and execute different measures and fit these into their farming system. The project also works with a number of other entrepreneurs like butchers and dairies and in England with the multinational company Unilever. Links have also been made to the national level in some countries, to contribute to national policy decision-making in particular in Flanders, where the creation of a new set of measures for traditional corps was examined on demand of the Flemish Ministry for Agriculture. All this has resulted in the incorporation of the scheme in the new Flemish Rural Development Programme. Each project partner is working on pilot projects. In Fryslan, a model has been developed, which can be used to evaluate the effects of pasture management on the bird population and thus can be used by farmers to plan the meadow bird management on their farms. In East England, on-going work involves assessments on the distribution of birds in view to implementing agri-environmental options in the summer and in the winter periods as well as a research on the socio-economic options for farmers and their views on sustainable agriculture. On the Shetland Islands 50 farmers have applied to join the project and to support an adapted farming system. In Telemark (Norway) the motivation and mobilisation of people was a central point in the beginning of the project. The promotion of the Telemark cattle as a potential symbol for the region has been accompanied with other activities in order to increase the awareness of local resources. In Germany, a working group model was established in order to secure the involvement of stakeholders in the region. The three working groups established involve farmers, water services and nature conservation. They meet regularly in order to discuss actual situation in the region and ways to solve the problems. The project is now entering its final phase where the final results will be widely disseminated. These results will be discussed in the last two meetings of our project which will be held in December 2007 and spring 2008.