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Bringing together  modern farming and the environment

   
By 2013 the EU Common Agricultural  Policy (CAP) will have been revised.  The good news for the consumer is that according the World Trade Organization  food prices will go down.

 For a family possibly by hundreds of euro`s per year. The bad news is that the number of farmers may  decrease dramatically, increasing risk  of land abandonment in the countryside. As a result the cost  for the environment and biodiversity may  increase.

In Europe nature and clean water  are becoming more expensive.  Payments for ecosystem services such as agri-environmental payments  may help to decrease these risks, bringing together modern farming and the environment.  

The thesis of the workshop was that a further increase of the productivity of (dairy) farming in Europe  (and by that the competitive position of dairy farmers on the world market) can be achieved , while improving the conditions of water resources and biodiversity. 


There are several profitable options.

  1.  Intensive farming systems, meeting  environmental and animal welfare cross compliance levels.
  2. Intensive farming systems which also manage  nature areas as well as economically marginal farm land.
  3. Enlarged extensive farming systems on economic marginal land for intensive farming as well as nature areas, which decrease environmental pressure on intensive farming. 

 

 

 

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The Organising Partners

This REP meeting in Brittany has been organized in co-production with the Université de Bretagne Occidentale (UBO), the Parc Naturel Régional d'Armorique and the EU Dairyman  project.  

The Parc Naturel Régional d’Armorique was established in 1969 as one of the first regional parks in France. At present there are 42 parcs of such parcs in France. The park comprises 112 000 hectares, 52 000 inhabitants, and 39 local communities. www.parc-naturel-armorique.fr

The Université de Bretagne Occidentale is in Brest. It includes the Institut de Géoarchitecture (School of Geo Architecture) which is focusing on the interaction of cities and its rural surroundings.

In Dairyman different regions in 7 countries work together: Brittany, Nord Pas de Calais (FR), South West Ireland (IR), Northern Ireland (UK), Pays de Loire, Brittany, Nord Pas de Calais (FR), Flanders, Wallonia (BE), Netherlands (except North East, NL), Baden Württemberg (GE), Luxembourg (LU).The aim of this EU project (2009-2012) is to strengthen rural communities in the regions of North West Europe (NWE),  where dairy farming is a main economic activity and a vital form of land use.
 

Meeting the neighbours:

Reconciliation of rural development and dairy farming in Europe

The latest meeting of the Rural European Platform convened in Bretagne (Brittanny), France  March 11-12 March 2010.  

This meeting of 2 days included an international seminar programme and one day of farm visits near Brest and the PNR d'Armorique. The seminar combined with farm visits was organized inviting famers and other important stakeholders from the Parc Naturel Régional d'Armorique to meet with inspiring and successful examples that are developing under similar circumstances elsewhere in Europe. The seminar has brought together up to 50 representatives of the farming community, of nature conservation organisations, and of local and regional policymakers from different regions in Europe. The seminar had also been incorporated in the Msc Programme of the Brest University of Brittany.

Armorique