Success of current measures to promote agroforestry in Italy within the EU Common Agricultural Policy

Title : Success of current measures to promote agroforestry in Italy within the EU Common Agricultural Policy

Abstract:

Scientific evidence, as well as policy institutions at EU level, recognise that agroforestry systems can contribute to climate change mitigation and adaptation, biodiversity enhancement, soil fertility and protection, and can provide opportunities for local rural economy. Therefore, agroforestry is relevant to various European policy targets and areas. In the EU, agroforestry is mainly supported by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Pillar II, i.e. Rural Development Programmes (RDPs).  

The aim of the present work is to provide an overview of the level of CAP support that agroforestry practices have received in Italy, and to understand whether CAP facilitated their adoption. In particular, our research is focused on the Italian regions and the two programming periods 2007-2013 and 2014-2022.

The study is based on interviews with the regional managing authorities and survey with farmers in Italy. The aim of interviews and survey was to gather explanations for the adoption or not of policy measures related to agroforestry practices. Also, the analysis considers the main CAP legislation framework for Pillar I and Pillar II, together with the accompanying and transposed legislation, a review of the Monitoring and Evaluation reports, and of scientific literature collected through ISI WEB of Science, Google scholar and grey literature. 

The findings suggest that only few Regions activated the measures supporting agroforestry in the programming periods considered, and even in these cases the level of funding used was very low. The reasons for these are related both to the contexts – e.g. cultural landscapes, agricultural structural characteristics – and the overall policy framework for the CAP – e.g. eligibility criteria for the direct payment scheme in relation to tree density, for the greening payment scheme, and the implementation of RDP measures. Some policy recommendations close our presentation.

Audience Take Away Notes: 

• Effectiveness of the EU Common Agricultural Policy in relation to the promotion of agroforestry.
• If and how policies can affect the uptake of agroforestry.
• How to better promote agroforestry through the EU CAP.

Biography:

Dr. Rosa graduated in Geology in 1997 from the University of Naples. She worked in Pedology for almost thirty years, 15 as a freelance, and 15 at CREA, the Research Centre of Agricultural and Environment as a Researcher. She has worked with soil Database, GIS programs and in filed survey, to process soil maps at little and big scale. She received her PhD degree in 2019 in Forest Ecology in Italy. She has been working for three years in the Forest Observatory of CREA Politics and Bioeconomy on various projects, from Forest Information System (Database and Forest map of Italy), naturalistic engineering and Agroforestry.