PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Fostering circular economy is a critical development factor which has a particular relevance in the Azores, a EU ultra-peripheral region composed of 9 volcanic islands in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean. In this context, resource scarcity makes it crucial to reduce materials and energy fluxes and to ensure their circulation in the local economy as long as possible. This applies in particular to agriculture, including livestock farming, and forestry, as well as their related industries, which are considered strategic sectors for the Azores Autonomous Region.
In recent decades, Azorean agriculture and livestock farming have become responsible for high water consumption, significant use of compound feed, inorganic fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides, as well as agricultural plastics and fossil fuels. The sector is also intensive in the use of machinery and equipment. Most inputs are brought from outside the region. There are also significant quantities of agricultural and forestry by-products and waste which are not recycled and for which other uses have not yet been found.In turn, circular economy practices and industrial symbiosis have not been incorporated into regional manufacturing practices.
In this context, the Azorean Regional Secretariat for Agriculture and Rural Development prepared a roadmap for the circular economy in the agroforestry sector 2023-2035, which was approved in 2023.
OBJECTIVES
By supporting the implementation of the “Roadmap for circularity of the Azorean agroforestry sector” (2023-2035), the project aims at driving the transition toward a sustainable, circular, toxin-free, energy-efficient, and climate-resilient economy while also protecting, restoring, and improving environmental quality, in particular by:
- Mainstreaming circularity into the agroforestry sector through a set of Strategic Objectives (SOs) that, as outputs from technical and governance works, have been selected for identification and guidance on priority measures to improve circularity:
- Reduce extraction of natural resources and consumption of raw materials and energy (SO1).
- Increase productivity and food safety on the agroforestry sector (SO2).
- Incentive the use of renewable energy sources and secondary materials (SO3).
- Leverage innovation and creation of circular businesses and products (SO4).
- Promote access to information, awareness raising, and civic engagement and participation (SO5).
- Integrating circularity into the agroforestry and agri-food sectors by improving agricultural plastic waste management, advancing biomaterial production, and converting organic waste into biogas, among others. Thus, allowing for combined achievement of targets set by other EU policies.
- Strengthening governance for circular management aims by increasing the commitment and participation of local and regional authorities and stakeholders.
Through complementary actions, the project aims at delivering additional engagement of producers and their organizations, enabling research and development for acquiring complementary data and guidance to ensure effective policy making, as well as making use of other funds, mainly Common Agricultural Policy, to further implement more focused sectoral best-practice solutions.
RESULTS
The project will directly fill knowledge, data and monitoring gaps, will contribute to building capacity, and will implement pilot, demonstration and best practice actions, focusing on transversal interventions. Its main foreseen environmental impacts are:
- increasing forest and natural/seminatural uses and areas, from around 42.6% of land cover (2018 baseline) to over 45%;
- reducing imports and use of solid chemical fertilisers by 20%, from around 48,500 tons/yr (2020 baseline) to less than 38,800 tons/yr;
- reducing end consumption of energy in Azorean agriculture by 10%, from around 20,931 tep/yr (2021 baseline) to less than 18,838 tep/yr;
- reducing end consumption of fossil fuels in Azorean agri-industry by 20%, from around 11,689 tep/yr (2021 baseline) to less than 9,351 tep/yr;
- reducing by 25% the net emissions of greenhouse gas emissions of Azores associated to agricultural and forestry land use (Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry), from 741,706 tCO2eq/yr (2020 baseline) to less than 556,280 tCO2eq/yr;
- doubling the area of annual and permanent agricultural land under organic/biological certification schemes, from 361.8 ha (2022 baseline) to over 723.5 ha;
- doubling the area of permanent pastureland under organic/biological certification schemes, from 4,185.8 ha (2022 baseline) to over 8,371.6 ha;
- increasing the reuse and recycling of forest and agricultural wastes to over 50%, from the current 4.3 % (2021 baseline);
- increasing the use of sub-products from slaughterhouses as a secondary raw material to over 25%, from the current 10.8 % (2021 baseline);
- developing, essaying and setting in the market at least 10 new circular products or production systems;
- planning and deploying at least 100 awareness raising, information or capacity building events focused in circularity on the agroforestry sector;
- mobilising and engaging over 50% of the agroforestry sector businesses with circularity through information, technical dissemination and capacity building activities.