What is LIVINGAGRO?
The LIVINGAGRO project aims to share innovations related to agroforestry with stakeholders working with olives and grazed woodlands in four Mediterranean countries: Italy, Greece, Lebanon and Jordan. The project funded by the European Union (EU) will help stakeholders to increase profitability, sustainability, and biodiversity in the face of limited resources and environmental constraints.
What is AGROFORESTRY?
Agroforestry is the practice of deliberately integrating woody vegetation (trees or shrubs) with crop and/or animal systems. Agroforestry can offer you valuable benefits.
Increased farm income
Reduced farm expenses
Increased biodiversity
Improved water management
Management of olive pests and diseases
More carbon sequestered in the soil
Reduced soil erosion and fire risk
Maintenance of soil fertility
Animal Welfare
What are LIVINGAGRO’s Living Labs?
LIVINGAGRO will tackle the issues of limited resources and environmental constraints using an open innovation approach, with two Living Laboratories: one devoted to “Multifunctional Olive Systems” and another for “Grazed Woodlands enabling interactions among innovators and stakeholders. After conducting surveys and discussions to learn about stakeholders’ needs, the LIVINGAGRO team is presenting technological developments, practical research results, and other types of innovation to stakeholders who can benefit from them in both financial and environmental terms.
Why should you join our living labs?
Living Labs move beyond traditional scientists’ laboratories to make a difference through cooperation in the field. Everyone involved with multifunctional olive systems (olive growing) and grazed woodlands are invited to enter our cross-border Living Laboratories by accessing this platform and explore innovations in agroforestry through free online classes, newsletters, online discussion forums, and a wealth of other events and information sources.
Advantages:
Find out new ways to increase farms’ income
Learn how you can reduce farming expenses
Discover innovations that can help improve products
Access free e-learning modules and training courses
Explore the way agroforestry helps farmers, farms, and the planet
Investigate catalogues of innovations and scientific resources
Connect with innovators and stakeholders online or face-to-face.
Agroforestry for
Multifunctional Olive Systems
Agroforestry in olive groves is the practice of growing crops among olive trees or using olive groves as pastures, making the groves into multifunctional olive systems that can increase farmers’ profit while helping the planet.
LEARN MOREAgroforestry for
Grazed Woodlands
Grazed woodlands are major agroforestry systems in the Mediterranean that highly contribute to sustaining local Mediterranean economies, supplying both vegetal and animal products.
LEARN MORENEWS AND EVENTS
Africa Climate Week 2023
Conference
The first global stocktake will conclude at COP28 in UAE in December of this year. The stocktake offers a unique opportunity to call for decisive change. It is an opportunity to urgently respond to the need to accelerate progress by collectively embarking on a swift and profound transformation of our economic and social systems.
ACW 2023 and all the Regional Climate Weeks provide a platform for policymakers, practitioners, businesses and civil society to exchange on climate solutions, barriers to overcome and opportunities realized in different regions.
The Weeks consider four major systems-based tracks with a view to providing region-focused contributions to inform the global stocktake:
Energy systems and industry
Cities, urban and rural settlements, infrastructure and transport
Land, ocean, food and water
Societies, health, livelihoods, and economies
The Agroforestry Show 2023
Conference
The Agroforestry show is a two day event that will bring the farming and forestry communities together to provide knowledge, inspiration and connections to support the widespread adoption of Agroforestry in the UK.
The show is taking place at Eastbrook Farm, Bishopston (near Swindon).
The Agroforestry Show (UK)
Conference
Interest in agroforestry is on the rise across the UK farming and forestry sectors, yet for many there is still uncertainty as to how to put this concept into practice.
Amidst this uncertainty agroforestry presents a huge opportunity for innovation between those who produce food and those who work with trees. Now is the time to break down the historic division between these sectors to work together towards a common purpose of landscape regeneration and sustainable food, fuel and fibre production!
Much more than a trade show, this two-day gathering will inspire land stewards to collaborate and engage with agroforestry through:
- Knowledge exchange workshops and inspiring talks
- Farmer and forester-led discussions
- Agroforestry field walks
- Live equipment demonstrations
- Exhibitions and market stalls
Join The Agroforestry Show to build and celebrate the UK’s agroforestry movement!
Know more about the event here
Local resources to address the global challenges of multifunctional olive systems (event in Italian)
Workshop
Date and time: 7th September 2023, from 10am to 12.30pm (CEST)
Event online: Attend
Objectives
The growing requests from operators in the olive sector for the enhancement of the quality of olive oil based on the territory of origin have led to the study of genetic resources and cultivation strategies aimed at increasing the capacity of the olive tree to face the scenarios envisaged by the ongoing climate changes and to reduce the impacts, with a view to enhancing local productions and using the multifunctionality of the crop.
The workshop represents a showcase of some of the approaches used and the most interesting outputs on the international scene.
Target audience
Olive growers, olive oil millers, oil industries, nurseries, control agencies, technicians and operators, researchers in plant genetics, agroecology and oil technology, students and communities interested in the safeguard and exploitation of local resources and the adoption of eco-sustainable cultivation and extraction technologies, community associations.
Please note that this event will be in Italian
Agenda (CET)
| 10:00 CET | Brief presentation of the LIVINGAGRO project. Sara Maltoni (Forestas Agency) |
| 10:10 | Characterization of Sardinian olive germplasm in comparison with national important varieties. Pierfrancesco Deiana, Mario Santona (University of Sassari) |
| 10:30 | Strategies to increase carbon sequestration in olive groves. Luca Regni, Primo Proietti (University of Perugia) |
| 10:50 | Impact of climate change and adaptation strategies in olive growing. Primo Proietti (University of Perugia) |
| 11:10 | Prospection, characterization and evaluation of the most productive and eco-sustainable local varieties. Maria Cristina Valeri (CNR – Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources) Biodiversity and quality of extra virgin olive oils in new and old genotypes. Maurizio Servili (University of Perugia) |
| 11:30 | New molecular tools for safeguarding local productions. Luciana Baldoni (CNR – Institute of Biosciences and Bioresources) |
| 11:50 | Questions and Answer session and final debate |
| 12:15 | Conclusions and closing |
Contact and organization
Luciana Baldoni – CNR, luciana.baldoni@ibbr.cnr.it
Project Contacts
Fo.Re.S.T.A.S. (LIVINGAGRO Leading Partner). Viale Luigi Merello, 86 • 09123 Cagliari, Italy. Tel. +39 070 279 91 • livingagro.project@forestas.it
Project’s ICT platform: https://livingagrolab.eu / FB: www.facebook.com/Livingagro / LIn: www.linkedin.com/company/livingagro-eni-cbc-med-project
Woodmeadow Trust Conference – Trees, flowers and food
Conference
Over the course of this action-packed one and a half day conference we will be exploring the value of woodmeadows and wood pastures for people, nature and climate. Having lost many of our wooded grasslands over the past century, silvopasture is experiencing a resurgence in interest from farmers, ecologists and climate conscious policymakers.
Nature recovery, carbon sequestration and food production are often perceived as competing land use priorities, but ‘multifunctionality’ should be at the forefront of our minds as we consider how our landscapes need to change to adapt to a changing climate. We will be bringing together a mixture of practice, policy and conservation experts from the farming, wildlife and forestry sectors, all of whom believe that wooded grasslands and other habitat mosaics have an important role to play in our quest for multifunctional landscapes, replete with natural capital.
Speakers confirmed at this point include: George Peterken, Keith Kirby, Aveliina Helm, Nigel Pilling, Sam Arthur, Matt Heard and Jeremy Dagley.
The conference will take place across two days with Day 1 hosted at Three Hagges Woodmeadow, 10 miles south of York, and Day 2 held at the National STEM Learning Centre in York.
Day 1 will begin at the National STEM Learning Centre in York at 12 noon with lunch and include site visits (on coaches) during the afternoon and a conference dinner in the evening at 7.30pm.
Day 2 will take place at the National STEM Learning Centre in York from 9.00am to 4.30pm.
EFI (European Forest Institute) 2023 Annual Conference
Conference
https://efi.int/events/2023-annual-conference-2023-09-20: stock.adobe.com – Nikolai Sorokin
EFI 2023 Annual Conference will take place on 20-22 September in Novi Sad, Serbia. Conference will be organised together with our member organisation Institute of Lowland Forestry and Environment.
Scientific seminar on ‘European forests and forest science: transition to the future’ will celebrate EFI’s 30th Anniversary.
The 9th Forum Agroforestry Systems
Conference
The 9th Forum Agroforestry Systems will take place from 27-28.09.2023 in Freiburg.
The Forum Agroforestry Systems is an event for the exchange of science and practice on agroforestry that has been taking place since 2009. Next year, DeFAF is co-hosting the forum with the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg. With various field trip opportunities on Sept. 27 and the main conference day for technical papers and discussions on Sept. 28, there will be something for everyone interested in agroforestry. For further information check the DeFAF website.
ALL-Ready and AE4EU joint final conference
Conference
ALL-Ready and AE4EU jointly host their final project conference at the European Committee of the Regions in Brussels on 27 September 2023.
The one-day conference will shed light on how the two projects paved the way for a European Network of Living Labs and Research Infrastructures. Both projects will feature stories from the field, pilot networks, and local stakeholders. Experiences from involved Living Labs and Research Infrastructures will give practical insights.
Through a series of panel discussions, the event will explore how Living Labs and Research Infrastructures can support the agroecology transition. How can Agroecology Living Labs and Research Infrastructures translate theory into practice? This and related questions will be at the forefront of participatory discussions to understand lessons learned from three years of project work.
The closing session will focus on how regions can best support Living Labs and Research Infrastructures to drive the agroecology and urban transitions. The role of the Common Agriculture Policy network, local authorities, and the future European partnership “Accelerating farming systems transition: agroecology living labs and research infrastructures” will be given prime consideration. Join us to meet partners and stakeholders from all across Europe and get to know their work on the field towards the agroecology transition!
Using a hypoxia workstation to select species that will produce more forage
Webinar
Date and time
28th September 2023, from 9.30am to 10.15 am (CET)
Language
English
Presentation available here
Executive summary English
Overview:
At the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (MAICh) in Crete, Greece, a hypoxia workstation is being used as part of the LIVINGAGRO project in an innovative way: the hypoxylab system allows us to determine how plants respond to low oxygen and then select species that might exhibit higher growth rates and eventually produce more forage. Based on the concept that plants adapted to a high altitude are likely to grow faster under normoxic oxygen concentrations, experiments were performed using the hypoxylab system. The objective is to identify species which produce more forage for grazing animals in Lebanon and Jordan through a combination of germplasm testing and selection.
AGENDA
Brief introduction to the LIVINGAGRO project
The workshop will focus on
- How the hypoxia workstation operates
- The science behind the effect of oxygen
- Results of experiments to date
- The potential significance of this service
Q&A, Open discussion between speaker and participants
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
After earning a PhD in Molecular and Cell Biology from the University of Maryland – College Park, USA and working at the US Department of Agriculture, Panagiotis Kalaitzis founded the Department of Horticultural Genetics and Biotechnology at the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (CIHEAM – MAICh). Continuing as the department’s Director of Research and Studies since then, Dr. Kalaitzis has participated in numerous European and nationally funded scientific projects, coordinating several of them and overseeing MAICh’s work with LIVINGAGRO. He is also the director of the Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Laboratory at MAICh, where his research includes DNA-based olive oil authentication to certify olive variety, and the characterization of olive genetic resources to determine the varieties that are most resilient in the face of climate change.
Contact and organization
Lisa Radinovsky radino68@gmail.com; Panagiotis Kalaitzis panagiot@maich.gr
Project Contacts
Fo.Re.S.T.A.S. (LIVINGAGRO Leading Partner). Viale Luigi Merello, 86 • 09123 Cagliari, Italy. Tel. +39 070 279 91 • livingagro.project@forestas.it
Project’s ICT platform: https://livingagrolab.eu / FB: www.facebook.com/Livingagro / LIn: www.linkedin.com/company/livingagro-eni-cbc-med-project
Closed cycles and the Circular Society 2023: The power of ecological engineering
Conference
We are very pleased to invite you to join us at the International Conference “Closed cycles and the Circular Society 2023: The power of ecological engineering” of the International Ecological Engineering Society (IEES). The conference will be held between October 1st – 5th, 2023 in Platanias – Chania on the island of Crete, Greece with physical presence and is organised by the Laboratory of Environmental Engineering and Management of the Technical University of Crete.
This conference marks the 30th anniversary since the foundation of the IEES in 1993! In this frame, our aim is to deliver and spread the message of redefining the ecological engineering discipline and communicate the IEES’s vision of an ecology-inspired circular engineering, as declared in our Manifesto of Ecological Engineering. An extended spectrum of conference topics has been formed indicating this modern holistic approach of Ecological Engineering.
The general conference topics are the
i) Use of ecological elements and ecosystems to reduce pollution
ii) Use of ecosystems in a circular society
iii) Circular design and integrated planning approaches for increased resiliency
iv) Resource recovery and reuse
v) Climate change, green and just transition, and carbon neutrality: the role of ecological engineers
vi) Regenerative agriculture
vii) Ecological Engineering and the mining industry
viii) Ecological Engineering Education
The official working language for the conference is English.
There will be oral and flash oral presentations and poster sessions.
We are looking forward to seeing you in Chania!
4th Mediterranean Plant Conservation Week
Conference
In 2023, two of these entities, the Centre for Forestry Research and Experimentation (CIEF, Generalitat Valenciana) and the Botanical Garden of the University of Valencia (BGUV) are the main responsibles for the organization of this fourth edition, to be held in Valencia (Spain) from 23rd to 27th October 2023, with the close cooperation of several units of the IUCN and the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund.
This congress will be a meeting point where the opinions and experiences of researchers and plant managers or practitioners will converge. This can be done by connecting experts in the fields of plant conservation and ecological restoration, being conscious that the last goal of plant rescue is not possible without the full recovery of the ecological functions on site.
Additionally, the 4th MPCW also pretends to be a forum where experiences from the different sides of the Mediterranean region can meet and establish links for future cooperation projects. Specialists from Southern Europe, the North of Africa, and the Middle East can find here a forum for the conservation of a common natural heritage, including plants, their habitats, and the knowledge on how to manage and use them in a sustainable way.
The 4th MPCW is a window to show research results and experiences in form of oral presentations and posters, not only from the plant or ecological sciences but also about the relationships between the public and the plant conservation world (citizen science, ethnobotany, local involvement, bottom-up initiatives, landraces, etc.), opening a new paradigm for the next decades around the Mediterranean: The plants are for the people, but with the people.
Please take a closer look at the 4th MPCW webpage and think about the possibilities of contributing to the huge effort of the conservation and recovery of plant richness and its sustainable use in the Mediterranean.
5th International Congress on Planted Forests
Congress
With a world population projected to reach 9.8 billion in 2050 – an increase of nearly 30 percent from today’s 7.6 billion [1] – needs for food, fuel, fiber and other bio-based products and services will rise sharply. Demand for forest-based biomass will increase, driven by construction and packaging, and wood fuel will remain the main energy source for many households in emerging economies.
At the same time, climate change, ecosystem degradation and their impacts call for deep changes in our global production and consumption patterns. Societies are engaging in the decarbonization of their economies and the restoration of their environment – with a prominent role for nature-based solutions. Forests and trees are an essential nature-based solution to accelerate the transition towards a carbon-neutral economy by providing opportunities for substituting fossil carbon based and greenhouse gas-intensive products with renewable forest-based products [2].
However, this demand for wood products will have to be met in a context of decreasing forest area, with 420 million hectares of forest lost to deforestation over the past 30 years, mainly in tropical countries (1990 to 2020) [3]. Meeting the rising demand for wood products in a sustainable manner will require a series of complementary actions along the value wood chain. However, these changes will not be sufficient if wood production itself does not increase. Planted forests, defined as forests that at maturity are predominantly composed of trees established through planting and/or deliberate seeding [4] only represent 7 percent of the global forest area [5].
Plantations [6], which make up less than half of the total planted forest area [7], produced in 2012 about 35 percent of the world’s total roundwood [8]. Planted forests hold untapped potential to fulfill future needs in wood products, while mitigating climate change and restoring degraded forest ecosystems. They should become a more important component of sustainably managed and well-developed forest sectors for socio-economic development and environmental protection
This fifth International Congress on Planted Forests will be the opportunity to review and discuss challenges and opportunities in harnessing the potential of planted forests to meet growing human needs, restore forest ecosystems, and mitigate climate change.
2024 Short Rotation Woody Crops International Conference
Conference
It is our pleasure to announce the 2024 Short Rotation Woody Crops International Conference, to be held May 13 – 16, 2024 in Columbia, Missouri, USA and hosted by the University of Missouri Center for Agroforestry.
Information on abstract submission, registration, and lodging is being compiled and will be made available on a conference website. Stay tuned for more information from the conference organizers!
7th European Agroforestry Conference in BRNO
Conference
Hosted by Mendel University and with the support of the Minister of Agriculture Zdeněk Nekula, the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic, the governor of the South Moravia region and the mayor of the city of Brno, this conference promises to bring together the best and brightest minds in European agroforestry. Don’t miss this opportunity to network with fellow experts and learn about the latest innovations in this important field.
6TH WORLD CONGRESS ON AGROFORESTRY IN 2025
Conference
Rwanda has been announced as the host of the 6th World Congress on Agroforestry in 2025. The announcement was made during the 5th World Congress on Agroforestry taking place in Quebec, Canada.
The 6th World Congress on Agroforestry in Kigali in 2025 will bring together more than 1,500 delegates including researchers, academia, development partners, and private and public sector to advance agroforestry.
The World Congress on Agroforestry will raise the profile of agroforestry and increase support, engagement and investment. It will create a legacy in terms of partnerships, investments and impact and produce a global agroforestry roadmap.
Meet the team
Livingagro Experts
Agricultural engineers, consultants, trainers, researchers or project managers. Our team is made up of passionate people, united above all by the same desire to think differently about agriculture for farmers, producers and consumers.
All experts
PROJECT PARTNERS
