Cross Border Living laboratories for Agroforestry
Agroforestry - a land use management system in which trees or shrubs are grown around or among crops or pastureland - has varied benefits, including increased biodiversity and reduced erosion. The combination of agriculture and forestry in the Mediterranean is deeply rooted in a culture of tradition and niche production but fails nowadays to structure its knowledge to achieve an integrated system of good practices for the sustainability of production, the protection of the biodiversity of distinct ecosystems, the transfer of innovation and the increase in profitability for the territories/actors involved. Therefore, LIVINGAGRO will tackle these issues using an Open Innovation approach, based on the setting-up of two Living Laboratories making possible the co-creation of the economic and social values and the interactions between supply and demand, eliminating geographical and cultural barriers. A specific focus will be on olive multifunctional system (Living Laboratory 1) and grazed woodlands (Living Laboratory 2). Olive cultivation is representative of many Mediterranean rural areas, and traditionally olive orchards were and are often still managed as agroforestry systems, in combination with cereals, fodder legumes and/or pasture. Grazed woodlands are major agroforestry systems in the Mediterranean that highly contribute to sustaining Mediterranean local economies supplying both vegetal and animal products.