A group of 20 farmers, researchers and Ministry of Agriculture officials from Portugal recently visited the Burren to experience the lessons learnt and recent innovations in sustainable agriculture in the region. The two day visit focused on innovations in building community partnerships with Burrenbeo Trust, farmer centered approaches of the Burren Programme to the design and implementation of the results based agri-environment schemes. Together with a focus on rural enterprise in the Burren that capitalizes on the unique landscape, the visitors got a real impression of the possibilities and opportunities for sustainable development in the region.
The visit is part of a wider EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation funded project HNV LINK, which stands for High Nature Value Farming: Learning, Innovation and Knowledge. The work of the project focuses on developing and sharing innovations that support farming systems of exceptional nature value across Europe. Throughout Europe these High Nature Value farmland areas are threatened with land abandonment, degradation, economic and social marginalization. In recent years, the Burren has shown that these challenges can be overcome. As a result, the area is receiving considerable attention from across the EU.
James Moran (GMIT) who facilitated the trip highlighted that “sharing knowledge across Europe with visits such as this enables innovative networks of people to work in partnership to develop locally adapted and results orientated solutions for their areas”.
Brendan Dunford (Burrenbeo trust and Burren Programme) emphasized the potential of the Burren as a learning landscape: ‘The rich heritage of the Burren makes it an amazing place to experience nature, landscape and history. But we also have a great story to tell here – about local people looking after their own place – and great people to tell it, in particular our local farmers. We really enjoyed hosting our Portugese colleagues here this week: sharing ideas, having fun and contributing to the local economy. Already for this years’ Burren Winterage weekend we have six delegations coming from across Europe to learn from our experiences in the Burren – this augurs well for the future of the Burren and for its importance as a learning destination.
Maria Isabel Ferraz de Oliveira from to University of Evora who coordinated the Portuguese visit, noted that for the visiting team the “agricultural production and environmental conservation activity carried out in real partnerships between farmers, scientists and public administration was very inspiring for the whole Portuguese group. The Burren has shown that the threats posed by ecosystem degradation caused by either land abandonment or farm intensification can be overcome using farmer centered agri- environmental results based approaches. Our Montado ecosystem has similar challenges and therefore the potential transferability of the Burren experience is enormous. The main take home message from the Burren experience is twofold:
-the environmental services we are expecting from farming can be produced when the farmer has room for an adaptive management supported in flexible policy tools’
– the success of continuous partnership approach across the whole process: design, implementation and evaluation of the results based approach”