MOVING has recently published 23 individual policy briefs, one for each of its Reference Regions. These documents include the description of the Mountain Reference Region (MRR), the value chain (VC) contribution to sustainability and resilience of the region, some innovation components of the VC and a number of policy relevant considerations.
The policy recommendations are tailored to the unique characteristics of each of the mountain regions, focusing on the type of value chains: crops, cheese, meat, alcohol, honey, tourism and public goods.
For crop VCs, it is recommended, among others, to better plan production taking into account the capacity of the system and the sustainable use of natural resources, and to support the use of more eco-friendly practices, as well as environmental education, the creation of new opportunities for farmers, and the promotion of organic production. These recommendations apply also to alcohol production, which seems to need support -especially for the small farmers- as well as better adaptation to technological innovation.
With regards to cheese production, the promotion of diversification of activities at farm and territorial level is needed to increase the resilience of the system. At the same time, it is important to increase information and awareness of quality schemes and certifications such as PDO cheeses.
In meat production, it is recommended to maintain traditional practices and it is established that cooperatives strengthen the collective efforts and innovation capacities. So, it is necessary to support shepherds and provide support to breeders as well as to create the networking conditions for the regional embeddedness and cross sectoral integration of VCs.
For honey production, the promotion of land-use diversity and autochthonous species and breeds is very important as well as the improvement of collaborative governance and environmental education across professions. In the sector of rural tourism, it is highlighted that its promotion will be a key element for local economic development. Also, in some cases better coordination of key stakeholders in the regions is needed as well as better planning, realisation and monitoring of the touristic initiatives.
Lastly, well-designed policies, especially the effective implementation of EU-funded rural development schemes and measures, have great potential to reduce the loss of High Nature Value farmlands and to maintain the supply of biodiversity-related public goods they supply. Policies need to be properly designed and implemented to improve depopulation and generational renewal (e.g. access to land; transfer of traditional knowledge, etc.).
Explore all MOVING documents published so far here.