On last December 15th, 2022, the first Brokerage event to foster innovation in Grazed Woodlands was held in Amman, Jordan, by the National Agricultural Research Center (NARC) and the Regional Forest Agency for Land and Environment of Sardinia (Fo.Re.S.T.A.S.) in collaboration with the whole LIVINGAGRO Consortium in order to highlight and present state-of-the-art innovations identified by the project in response to challenges which economic stakeholders of the Mediterranean agroforestry sector are facing, responding to needs such as increase of profitability, sustainability of production and biodiversity protection considering limited resources and environmental constraints.  

After the opening and welcome speeches by Dr. Salam Ayoub, Director of the Horticulture Research Directorate at NARC, and Sara Maltoni, of the Technical Service of the General Direction at Fo.Re.S.T.A.S., speakers and innovators from Greece, Italy, Lebanon and Jordan shared their experiences at the presence of around 60 participants - mostly from Jordan - who joined the event representing private (65%) and public (35%) entities. In the framework of the Borkerage event the event participants, among which researchers (30%), representatives of cooperatives/farmers (4%) and multiple stakeholders in representation of private companies or active as consultants (65%), had the opportunity to share their points of view, considerations and questions concerning proposed and presented contents focusing on innovations targeted to economic operators and stakeholders of the Mediterranean grazed woodlands sector.

The protagonist innovations of the event included  the practice of thinning and pruning trees in silvopastoral systems presented by Prof. Anastasia Pantera from the Agricultural University of Athens in Greece; the use of trichoderma for enhancing resilience of tree and grassland species for Mediterranean wooded grasslands linking this practice to actions and activities of the “SALAM MED” project presented by Prof. Pier Paolo Roggero from the University of Sassari in Italy; the developed policy guidelines for agroforestry in Mediterranean Partner Countries by Dr. Claudia Consalvo from the Italian National Research Council (CNR-IRET) in Italy; the developed research  using “natural intelligence” for innovating the way of monitoring grazed woodlands for their sustainable management by Prof. Simonetta Bagella from the University of Sassari in Italy; the use of remote sensing techniques to monitor oak by Dr. Ihab Jomma from the Lebanese Agricultural Research Center (LARI) in Lebanon, and the use of willow trees as non-traditional feed resource for sheep and goats by Dr. Sami Awabdeh from the National Agricultural Research Center (NARC) in Jordan.

The event continued in the afternoon when one-to-one meetings and a round table with the event speakers was organized in order to facilitate and promote an open discussion between speakers and organizing entities with the event participants.

All presented innovations can be further explored in the dedicated Catalogue of innovations available on the project website (EN and AR) and on the project ICT platform (EN and AR).

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