PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
The food sector, with its reliance on intensive agriculture, has a huge negative impact on biodiversity. However, food companies are becoming increasingly aware that biodiversity loss is affecting their core business and – together with climate change mitigation and adaptation - needs to be addressed as a priority. Most food companies do not yet have strategies, action plans or concrete goals for sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity in place.
New and upcoming EU legislation (i.e. Farm to Fork Strategy, Supply Chain Act, legislative framework for sustainable food systems) requires companies to identify and evaluate the risk, impact and their dependencies upon biodiversity. In order to achieve the objectives, the new legislative framework and its implementation need to be supported by capacity building for companies. This involves providing practical approaches and information to integrate biodiversity into supply chain management and monitoring of biodiversity performance within them.
A previously funded EU LIFE project – LIFE Food & Biodiversity – concluded with a series of recommendations for 'effective biodiversity criteria for standards and requirements of food companies'. This resulted in the establishment of the 'Basic-Set of Biodiversity Criteria for the Food Sector', a reference for reviewing existing food standards and company guidelines. It also enabled the creation of the German sector initiative 'Food for Biodiversity'.
The LIFE BGP Food project will build on these results, as well as results from the EU Horizon VISIONARY project and the LIFE Insect Responsible Sourcing Regions project on incentive schemes to motivate farmers to implement biodiversity measures at a regional level. In order to assess the synergies between the proposed biodiversity measures and other aspects of agricultural sustainability, such as climate mitigation, climate change adaptation and air pollution control, the LIFE BGP Food project will also leverage the findings and resources generated from the LIFE AgriClimateChange, LIFE AgriAdapt and LIFE Clean Air Farming projects.
OBJECTIVES
The main objective of the LIFE BGP Food project is to improve the management and performance of biodiversity along the supply chain of the food sector in Germany and other EU countries. This will be done by supporting food companies to fulfil biodiversity related legislation with a high level of ambition and to go even beyond legal requirements.
The specific objectives of the project are to:
- build capacity for managers and sustainability coordinators in food companies to increase the integration of biodiversity into decision making
- roll out of a Basic Set of Biodiversity Criteria in the food sector in Germany and in 5 other EU countries
- contribute to sound and effective biodiversity related criteria in food standards
- provide clarity on methods and tools for the food sector relevant to biodiversity
- harmonise monitoring procedures for biodiversity in food supply chains
- motivate and support the creation of a joint database with primary data on biodiversity in agricultural supply chains
- achieve wide acceptance in the food sector in Germany and in 5 other EU countries to provide attractive incentives for farmers and to assume a fair share of costs related to implementing biodiversity measures
- improve knowledge for auditors and certified public accountants
- improve knowledge of political decision makers helping to establish frameworks requiring greater biodiversity performance in the food sector
- and inform personnel of public administrations responsible for public procurement
- create sector initiatives on food and biodiversity in 5 other EU countries
- creation of a European network on food and biodiversity
- assess and support new sources of financing ecosystem restoration via biodiversity credits for insetting projects of the food sector
RESULTS
The expected results of the LIFE BGP Food project are:
- 20 food retailers and companies have taken into account the Basic Set of Biodiversity Criteria in 6 supply chains with 50 producers in each (total of 6 000 producers) and implementation of a sound biodiversity management plan
- Improvement in understanding of biodiversity among 180 managers (7 courses in Germany involving 20 managers and 2 courses in another EU country involving 20 managers)
- Improvement in understanding of biodiversity among 90 sustainability coordinators (7 courses in Germany and 2 in EU countries with 10 sustainability coordinators on each)
- Improvement in the knowledge of around 6 000 young professionals and students thanks to the integration of the module on biodiversity into the programmes of 3 capacity building institutions for the German food sector
- at least 500 food companies informed about the guidelines for effective incentives and motivated to implement them
- 10 companies have started incentive activities and over 1 000 actors in the food sector informed on positive examples
- an overview of relevant biodiversity tools indicating the information value, the applicability, advantages, potential shortcomings and data availability of each tool, and guidelines distributed to more than 1 000 actors in the food sector
- 10% of the food companies feel well informed and are making good use of the available tools
- a workshop on the integration of biodiversity into corporate strategies involving at least 20 companies’ and stakeholders’ representatives
- at least 5 companies have feasible projects to be implemented in the next 5 years and generate biodiversity credits
- 200 auditors and accountants in Germany and in other EU countries have a sound knowledge on biodiversity and use it to evaluate and certify sustainability and other reports
- acceptance of a Basic-Set of Biodiversity Key Performance Indicators by the food sector in Germany and other EU countries
- 10% of companies of the food sector have implemented ambitious biodiversity monitoring structures and processes
- 5 Food for Biodiversity initiatives on the way to being established in 5 EU countries