PROYECT 99 E - 306

• What is LIFE?
  
  
• Aim of the project
  
  
• Participants
  
  
• Dissemination activities
  
  
• Collaborators

• What is LIFE?

LIFE is the only instrument, which specifically supports the development and implementation of Community environment policy.

The general objective of LIFE is to contribute to the implementation and development of Community environment policy hereby emphasising the integration of the environment into other policies and the sustainable development of the Community.

LIFE- Environment Preparatory Actions, which our project belongs to, finances measures designed to strengthen the link and complementarity between environmental regulations and structural financial assistance, in particular from Community funds and financial instruments concerning the environment.

For the year 1999, the Commission approved 152 projects selected from 682 proposals that were introduced at the beginning of 1999 by organisations from all over the EU. The proposals went through a rigorous evaluation procedure. The Commission services assisted by a group of 114 independent experts ranked the projects on merit. The budgetary resources available for Life-environment in 1999 (65 million EURO) allowed to finance the top 152 projects. With 1,4 million EURO, our project has been the most granted

from the EU in all Europe. More information in: http://europa.eu.int/comm/life/envir/index.htm

Through the cooperation and transfer of know-how between different European players concerned with agriculture and the environment, it is aimed to perfect agrarian techniques which permit a more sustainable development applicable to the greater part of the European agrarian surface, paving the way for the implantation of agri-environmental measures as reflected in the Agenda 2,000. Also, it is intended that there should be a wide dissemination of these techniques among experts, administration personnel and farmers so that they can be applied without difficulty.

Generally, conventional agricultural techniques in Europe are harmful for the environment. This includes practices such as crop residues burning and tilling to control weeds. These techniques considerably increase soil erosion and river contamination with sediments, fertilizers and pesticides. In addition, conventional agricultural techniques increase the emission of CO2 into the atmosphere, contributing to the global warming and reduce the sustainability of agriculture, reducing soil organic matter and fertility, among other negative environmental effects (i.e. decrease in biodiversity).

Conservation agriculture includes any practice which reduces, changes or eliminates tillage and avoids residues burning to maintain enough surface residue through the year. As a consequence, the soil is protected from rainfall erosion and water runoff; soil aggregates, organic matter and fertility level naturally increase, less contamination of the surface water occurs, the emissions of CO2 to the atmosphere are reduced, and the biodiversity increases.

Unfortunately, agricultural conservation in Europe is little developed (estimate <5%), far behind the situation of developed countries such as Australia, EE.UU and Canada, and even further behind that of countries with lower incomes such as the Argentine and Brazil. Up to now the Common Agrarian Policy has not really supported sound environment friendly agricultural practices, only just distributing subsidies to farmers. The subscribers of this project consider that the conservation agriculture can provide the general/ extensive solution for the environmental problems derived from agricultural land in Europe and can fit in the "continuum" of different farming systems that are appropiate within the EU. Agenda 2000 will probably be the turning point to integrate good environmental and agricultural practices. Further, it is our strong belief based on much scientific/ technical knowledge conducted in the past decades and on a consistent experience of other countries, that agricultural conservation techniques are the right answer for extensive agriculture in Europe.

The spreading of know-how is a fundamental part of this project. One of the basic objectives is to encourage the knowledge of these techniques so that the European regulations can be easily applied. The circulation of information will be carried out on 2 levels: international and national:

European level:

• International newsletter (2 issues a year) in English in which the conclusions will appear from the different wporkshops of experts, conferences and other aspects of interest of these techniques, these will be widely distributed among administrators, environmentalists, agronomists from private companies and public University/ research centers related to agriculture matters.
  
  
• International Congresses integrating administrators, pioneer farmers and scientific/ researcher about key issues of these techniques (one a year); widely distributing the conclusions in specialised journal and mass media (newspaper, radio, T.V).
  
  
• Web page with all kinds of information about conservation agriculture: environmental advantages, technical advice, etc.
  
  
• Creation of CD-ROM at the end of the project, containing all the information on the workshops, conferences, national field days, plus the Web page.

National level

Since the application of these techniques may differ as a function of the type of soils, climatology, etc., we believe it to be necessary to have field-days and seminars and to issue information (in the language of each country) on a national level. The circulation activities on a national level will be:

• Editing and publishing technical key information for agricultural and environmental specialists
  
  
• Wide distribution of key reports/ conclusions in specialised journals and mass media (newspapers, radio, T.V).
  
  
• Demonstrations/ field days/seminars of agricultural techniques in areas of high risk of erosion/ water run off and river contamination, determining and reporting the environmental and economic benefits.

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