Context: Our organisations are all united by a common thrust: realising food sovereignty and developing agroecological farming systems, both at grassroots and policy level. We are leading organisations at European and/ or national level in our own fields: peasant farming (ECVC and ER), organic farming (IFOAM EU), community-supported agriculture (Urgenci), community land initiatives (TDL and RFT), research and advocacy on natural resource politics (TNI). Access to land is key both to enable the continuation of peasant farming, and to renew farmers’ generations. It is therefore a cornerstone of a European transition towards agroecological farming What are the needs? For the past 10 years, our organisations have conceived practical solutions, trained and advised farmers, organised local mobilisations to preserve farmland and secure farmers’ access to land, published studies, advocated at national and European level. We have thus constituted a body of experience, methodologies and theory. But, we now need to work more closely together to consolidate our strategic learning and thinking. Besides, the European and national context has changed, with both more pressures on farmland and more policy opportunities to protect and regulate land use. Through this project, we seek to address the following needs: - Consolidate learning and ways of doing of our organisations, through cross-fertilisation; - Conduct a joint strategic review of existing land experiences, to identify those best suited to various needs, and consistent with the new policy context; - Disseminate this knowledge to our members and partners: farmers and would-be farmers, citizens and consumers supporting farmers, organic stakeholders, rural development associations, environmental groups; - Draw lessons to be shared with policy-makers, so as to take advantage of their rising interest for the protection of European farmland and agroecological systems. Our objectives: The overall aim of the project therefore is to build and disseminate strategic knowledge about land strategies for agroecology. Specific objectives: - Jointly consolidate our learning about land strategies, - Develop recommendations for policy makers, - Share these learnings through the dissemination of our handbook, webinars, on-line articles, policy report and multiplier event - Educate and mobilise specific groups of stakeholders: consumers groups and organic stakeholders. Participants and beneficiaries: The main group of direct participants will be practitioners involved in land struggles and land initiatives at grassroots level – i.e. about 250 to 300 participants, from at least 15 European countries, mostly members and partners of our organisations and affiliate organisations. A second group will be legal experts, local authorities and policy-makers who will participate in our country sessions, training event and policy symposium. Indirect beneficiaries of the project are farmers, food producers, consumers, environmental groups, researchers and public authorities, who will benefit from the support and engagement of more strategic and better networked organisations supporting sustainable food and farming systems and food sovereignty. Expected results: Our tangible results will be: - 6 country dossiers compiling experiences, lessons learnt and policy analyses about the national contexts in key European countries; - a training event on Local land strategies (40 participants) - a practical Handbook on local land strategies, presenting a wide array of local land actions and fostering strategic thinking about diverse approaches. Available (on-line and print) in English, Romanian, French and Spanish. In complement, a series of short videos will illustrate some of these stories and strategies. - a policy report: “Access to Land for Agroecology in Europe: A Transformative Vision”, which will set out the vision and strategy of the partnership for securing access to land for peasant, small-scale and agroecological farming systems in Europe. This will be accompanied by a short video to communicate the report's key message and an executive summary available in four languages. - 4 webinars, to share lessons learnt and tools with a broader audience, through presentations and Q&A sessions - a social media campaign and on-line learning module to specifically engage and upskill consumers’ groups A major component of the partnership will lie in intangible results, in terms of: - Stronger collaboration between the various strands of organisations promoting access to land for agroecology, - More impactful land mobilisations and initiatives emerging throughout Europe, - Increased recognition for a wide array of civil society solutions to farmland issues, - Wider policy debate on improving national and EU policy frameworks, which favour access to land for agroecology, based on field-based experience and sound research
RAS