PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Climate change has a wide range of negative impacts, such as extreme weather events, the incidence of which has exponentially increased. Climate change influences the earth’s water cycle, increasing levels of water vapour in the atmosphere and therefore increasing water unpredictability. As a result, more intense rain storms may occur in some regions, while others may suffer from severe drought. The European Environment Agency (EEA) report "Climate change, impact and vulnerability in the EU" underlines that an increasing number of regions will be affected by extreme flooding and drought events. In particular, precipitation patterns are changing, with an increased amount of rainfall in wet regions and a decrease in dry regions, together with an increase in temperatures leading to heat waves, heavy downpours and drought. Worldwide in the last 20 years, 36.5% of catastrophic events were caused by flooding, followed by severe storms (23.5%) and drought (2.90%).
Taking into consideration the issues described relating to climate change and extreme weather events, different studies and projects have been developed in the past year involving DE, NL and BE separately or jointly, aiming to analyse and/or regulate the effect of climate change on water cycles. Together, these studies and projects have provided some risk analysis and technical solutions at local level for extreme climatic events. However, a cross-border solution such as the one proposed by AFaktive has not yet been implemented. Such a targeted solution aims not only to counteract the impacts of climate change on water cycles, but also to adapt to and mitigate the risks, promote biodiversity protection and create socio-economic benefits.
Stakeholders in specific sectors of landscape management often have a limited, sector-oriented perspective – for example, farmers focus on production, conservationists on the preservation of existing habitats, and administrative authorities on the general management of criticalities deriving from the impacts of extreme events. This solution will focus on land-management practices and does not have an exclusively sector-oriented perspective.
The EU-LIFE SAP project AFaktive - Agroforestry as a Key to improve Water Management & Adaptation to Extreme Weather Events aims to address this gap by demonstrating and promoting agroforestry (AF) as a nature-based solution (NbS) in land management.
OBJECTIVES
The project was developed in collaboration with partners from DE, BE and NL, with the object of demonstrating and promoting agroforestry (AF) as a nature based solution (NbS) in land management. LIFE AFaktive will apply AF as an adaptation strategy aiming to counteract the impacts of extreme climatic events. It will therefore reach a number of broader EU objectives by contributing to support environmental and socio-economic adaptation through knowledge-based best practice examples and their application. These activities aim to improve resilience and to reduce vulnerability of society as a whole.
The project aims to reach the following general objectives:
- Environmental adaptation: showcasing how AF can reduce the negative impacts of intense precipitation and flooding in land management; increase soil infiltration potential; contribute to the creation of microclimates; mitigate the impacts of drought and heat; and improve soil and water quality and therefore promote biodiversity;
- Socio-economic adaptation: AFaktive aims to demonstrate the benefits of AF in also reducing the socio-economic impacts of extreme weather events by showing its multifunctional ability to provide a wide range of income sources, such as food, fuel and biomass, fodder, forage, fibre, timber, gums and resins, thatching and hedging materials, and medicinal and craft products. The aim is to establish new value chains (and therefore jobs), and to enhance the diversity and attractiveness of the landscape (cultural services);
- Furthermore, in line with the general objectives of the EU to promote adaptation strategies, the project aims to create awareness, exchange knowledge and provide best practice examples of AF for water management. The project will reach out to the general public, scientists, practitioners, policy-makers, governmental bodies, SMEs, NGOs, etc. in order to promote and replicate the implementation of AF.
RESULTS
The project aims to achieve results by establishing Agroforestry (AF) systems in DE, BE and NL.
Development of Agroforestry and Water Management plans (AWM plans) and establishment of new AF systems.
- The AWM plans will be developed based on the effects of AF as a climate adaptive tool on six pilot farms (demonstration/implementation phase). These are pioneer pilot farms that will serve as best practice examples and lesson-learning models. In addition, new AF systems will be implemented on each pilot farm (around 6 ha per pilot). In the following expansion/ upscaling phase, at least 12 additional pilot areas (expansion/ upscaling farms) will be involved in the project. In total, on 18 farms new AF climate-adaptive systems will be planted on around 100 ha.
Development of Regional Agroforestry and Water Management plans (RAWM)
- This action aims to further upscale the project area of intervention in at least three specific regions per country (nine in total), with another 10 farms in each region (90 farms in total each covering around 6 hectares, amounting to 540 ha) via RAWM;
- Testing and monitoring of innovative tools will be carried out throughout the project implementation phase;
- A measuring and monitoring protocol for AF environmental adaptation impacts will be established;
- A minimum of 18 marketing plans will be developed (each concerning one single product and service), together with an individual business plan for each of the 18 participating pilot farms and certification/ branding of AF products;
- Overall communication of the project results will reach at least 100,000 people;
- Knowledge exchange through networking activities targeting at least 20 other AF projects will result in replication and upscaling by other projects;
- Benefits for the natural capital and health from applying AF are estimated as follows (by the end of the project):
reduction of impacts of extreme events on 5,000 people;
2.4 km2 will benefit from AF, thus reducing its vulnerability to extreme weather events;
an estimated 20% of the length of rivers will be improved by implementing AWM;
water run-off will be reduced by 25% or 1,625 m3/ha/y;
soil quality will be improved by reducing soil erosion on 6.42 km2;
biodiversity in 24 locations will be protected;
GHG emissions will be reduced by 3,125 t of CO2eq/year and approximately one tonne of CO2 eq per hectare per year (amounting to a total of 800 t CO2eq) will be sequestered by implementing AF measures.
