Agro-ecological Knowledge Hub
cs čeština en English fi suomi fr français de Deutsch el ελληνικά hu Magyar it italiano lv latviešu lt lietuvių ro Română es español sv svenska
RG Z

Farmers and Agri-food system

  • How can agro-ecological approaches help you to produce healthy food that is both economically sufficient and environmentally sustainable? 
  • How can farmers, food producers, and local retailers do the same?
  • What are the opportunities for farmers, food producers, and/or retailers to invest, cooperate, and develop agro-ecological approaches?

NGOs, civic organisations, local community

  • How can agro-ecological approaches address your local issues and improve the sustainability of agriculture in your community or your area?

  • How can NGOs, civic organisations, local communities, citizens, or community groups get involved in the implementation of agro-ecological approaches?

  • What are the opportunities to advance, share knowledge, co-construct strategies on local issues regarding local/regional agro-ecological food systems?

Consumers

  • How can agro-ecological approaches address malnutrition and malnutrition-related health issues?

  • How can agro-ecological approaches contribute to building a sustainable and healthy diet?

Explore our results:
click the tiles on the right

View the Socio-Ecological System Interaction Tool here
SESSIT

Governments and Administration

  • How effective are innovative strategies and incentives in strengthening the sustainability of farming systems?
  • How can policies at national and regional level promote and support the implementation of such innovative strategies?
  • How can innovative policy incentives be administered in practice?

EC, international bodies

  • What are the socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for further development and implementation of agro-ecological approaches?
  • What opportunities exist for EU policies to support agro-ecological farming systems?

Science and innovation

  • How can combining research, practice, and policy in a systematic approach contribute to strengthening the implementation of European policies on sustainable agro-ecological farming whilst solving societal challenges?

ABOUT

UNISECO is a European research project aiming to develop innovative approaches to enhance the understanding of socio-economic and policy drivers and barriers for further development and implementation of agro-ecological practices in EU farming systems.
Read more

CASE STUDIES

There is an increased awareness that agro-ecological farming systems (AEFS) are fundamental for sustainable food production in the future. The key dilemma is how to produce public goods whilst having viable production of private goods, securing economic and social sustainability at a farm level, which is not overly dependent on public funds. The ambition of UNISECO is to address this key dilemma through co-constructing improved, practice-validated strategies and incentives for the promotion of AEFS in participatory case studies in 15 European Countries.

Read more

FINAL CONFERENCE

UNISECO WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENDANCE AND CONTRIBUTIONS

The UNISECO project came to an end on 30 April 2021. We celebrated its legacy with a final digital event, gathering partners, experts and members of the European institutions. The event addressed the presentation of the EU policy context, the UNISECO project, its main results and transdisciplinary approach, governance of agro-ecological transitions and sustaimability implications at farm and territorial level, and a workshop on agro-ecological transitions in Europe and contributions of the project results to the Agroecological Partnership, CAP strategic plans and future research topics.
Read more

PROJECT NEWS & EVENTS

UNISECO in Northern Spain: a project summary video by GAN-NIK
UNISECO in Northern Spain: a project summary video by GAN-NIK

This video, created by the UNISECO partner in Spain is summarizing GAN-NIK's case study work in Navarra, their results and impressions of the UNISECO project. VIEW THE VIDEO

Among the multi-actor case studies in 15 countries across Europe the case study in Northern Spain focuses on how to reduce the socio-economic fragility of agro-ecological farms while maintaining environmental sustainability. Visit the page of the case study in Northern Spain for more details.

Read more
RESEARCH ARTICLE: Applying the HANPP framework to map provisioning ecosystem services and their relation to ecosystem functioning across the EU
RESEARCH ARTICLE: Applying the HANPP framework to map provisioning ecosystem services and their relation to ecosystem functioning across the EU

Read the open access research paper by BOKU colleagues based on the work in UNISECO "Applying the Human Appropriation of Net Primary Production framework to map provisioning ecosystem services and their relation to ecosystem functioning across the European Union" published in the Vol. 51 2021 issue of Ecosystem Services.

Read more
UNISECO results presented at DG Agri online Policy seminar 7 July 2021
UNISECO results presented at DG Agri online Policy seminar 7 July 2021

The Green Deal, the Farm to Fork and the Biodiversity stategies have identified agroecology as a farming practice and promising approach that can support us collectively to achieve this ambitious EU level target of climate neutrality by 2050.

In the H2020 programme the 3-year UNISECO and 4-year LIFT projects have been financed under the topic call SFS-29-2017 - Socio-eco-economics – socio-economics in ecological approaches from 2018. Now that UNISECO is over an online policy seminar was organized to present findings of both projects.

Read more

RESOURCES

PARTNERS

Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut Bundesforschungsinstitut für Ländliche Räume, Wald und Fischerei Consiglio per la Ricerca in Agricoltura e l'Aanalisi dell'Economia Agraria Agricultural University of Athens Universität für Bodenkultur Wien The James Hutton Institute The University Court of the University of Aberdeen Institut Superieur d'Agriculture Rhone Alpes Baltijas Vides Forums Baltijos Aplinkos Forumas VSI Forschungsinstitut für biologischen Landbau Stiftung Geonardo Environmental Technologies Ltd. Luonnonvarakeskus Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet Gestion Ambiental de Navarra S.A Asociatia WWF Programul Dunare Carpati Romania Ustav Zemedelske Ekonomiky a Informaci European Landowners Organization Bioinstitut o.p.s.