المحتوى متاح باللغة الإنجليزية

On Thursday, January 28^th 2021 from 9.30 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. (CET), the webinar “Research and Innovation for the Mediterranean Silvopastoral Systems” took place. The event was organized in the framework of LIVINGAGRO capitalization activities.

The main positive outputs of the webinar are represented by the given visibility and capitalization of many interesting innovations and initiatives and related results linked to silvopastoral systems in the Mediterranean facilitating sharing of best practices and the creation of a stakeholders network to be enhanced within LIVINGAGRO project including researchers, farmers, economic operators and institutional representatives.

Silvopastoral systems are the main agroforestry systems in the Mediterranean Basin that strongly contribute to supporting local economies, providing both plant and animal products. Furthermore, their role in providing a wide range of ecosystem services is well recognized. Today, there is a strong demand from farmers for an integrated system of good practices that guarantee the sustainability of production, the transfer of innovation and the increase in profitability for the territories/actors involved.

The webinar was opened and moderated by Federica ROMANO, LIVINGAGRO communication manager on behalf of the Regional Forest Agency for Land and Environment of Sardinia (Fo.Re.S.T.A.S., LIVINGAGRO Leading Beneficiary, Italy), followed by Sara MALTONI, team leader of the LIVINGAGRO technical team at Fo.Re.S.T.A.S. and Claudio PORQUEDDU, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Animal Production in the Mediterranean Environment of the Italian National Research Council (CNR ISPAAM, LIVINGAGRO Partner 1, Italy), for an introduction on LIVINGAGRO project and on the webinar topics. In the first part of the meeting, the role and current trend of the agrosilvopastoral systems were discussed with a focus on the four countries of LIVINGAGRO project: Dr. Claudio PORQUEDDU of CNR ISPAAM reported about the situation in Italy, Prof. Anastasia PANTERA of the University of Athens spoke about Greece, Dr. Chadi MOHANNA of the Lebanese Ministry of Agriculture discussed the Lebanese context and Dr. Nizar OBEIDAT of the Jordan Ministry of Agriculture showed the main challenges related to silvopastoral systems in Jordan. The second part of the meeting was dedicated to the capitalization of the two projects “Agforward” and “Regenerate” funded, respectively, by the European Commission under the Seventh Framework Programme and LIFE Programme, whose activities, outcomes and expected results were illustrated by Dr. Gerardo MORENO of the University of Extremadura (Spain), and Dr. Antonio PULINA of the University of Sassari (Italy) respectively revealing several points in common with the LIVINGAGRO project and its milestones. A last intervention presented a successful site restoration case study from Tunisia to the “virtual table” by Dr. Mounir LOUHAICHI of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA). At this point the debate was opened during which participants had the opportunity to interact with speakers, express their point of view and report about their experience on issues linked to the webinar focus. Finally, the concluding remarks of the webinar were made by Alberto MANTINO of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna di Pisa (Italy) who analysed vulnerability of Mediterranean silvopastoral systems, reporting about sector-related research and research outcomes as well as main future challenges, to end with the final reflections on how to combine food security, farm sustainability and natural capital conservation.