Picture by LWA

If you are looking for initiatives acting towards agroecology in Europe, you are in the right place!

The initiatives listed/described below are the result of a mapping activity carried out under the AE4EU project and through a LIFE operating grant which involved a large number of organisations, as well as many so-called "mappers" who conducted the work in the different European countries. Among them were many members of the Agroecology Europe Youth Network (AEEUYN). In order to carry out the mapping, a common methodology was defined, building on already existing elements used for previous mapping efforts executed by Agroecology Europe. Referring to the first volume of the Country Reports series (link or PDF), the following countries have been mapped: Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegoniva, Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Kosovo, Malta, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Romania.
This mapping includes the identification of different initiatives, cases, examples, and programmes relating to five different activity categories: Practice, Science, Movement, Living Labs (displaced in a dedicated session in the hub), Education and Training. 

In this hub, initiatives are understood as formal actions led by an organisation towards agroecology (Wezel, A., Grard, B. and Gkisakis. V., 2023). This can include a diversity of initiatives, examples or cases related to one or more of the five activity categories:

• Programmes, projects, and initiatives that put agroecology into practice (farms networks, farmer’s cooperatives, local markets, etc.);
• Living labs;
• Platforms or organisations that collect information about what they know about agroecology and disseminate it;
• University programmes and courses, or training and teaching courses and activities promoted by any organisation;
• Social movements of people promoting agroecology for any reason;
• Research projects and programmes on agroecology, including research infrastructures.

In order to select the initiatives, five flexible criteria were defined:

1. Initiatives existing for longer than three years, with an exception for initiatives that stand out notably in some aspect of interest that are about two to three years old.
2. Outstanding initiatives that tackle social, environmental, economic problems or difficulties in agriculture.
3. Agricultural initiatives that provide an economic role (such as a living wage to the people involved in the project) and are socially sustainable.
4. An initiative cited by more than one key informant or mentioned in previous mapping exercises.
5. Initiatives which are located in different parts of the country.

(Wezel, A., Grard, B. and Gkisakis. V. (eds) 2023. Agroecology in Europe. Country Reports Series, Vol. 1, ISARA, Lyon, France; Agroecology Europe, Corbais, Belgium.)

   Pictures by Heather Birnie

Croatia

• Green Network of Activist Groups (ZMAG)

Romania

• PermaFlor -  “everything is gardening”