PASTINNOVA - Innovative models for sustainable future of Mediterranean pastoral systems

Pastoral systems provide a wide range of ecosystem services and play multiple roles towards sustainable and inclusive development. • Socio-economic role. Pastoralism has protected livelihoods in mountain/marginal/island areas for centuries and is still an important source of income and employment, even combined with other activities. • Environmental role. Being tailored to local conditions, pastoralism makes efficient use of natural resources. Good grazing practices in pastoral systems play an essential role in the management of grazing land; biodiversity; landscape structure; and mitigating climate change effects (GHGs) (e.g. soil carbon stock in rangelands). • The cultural heritage of pastoralism characterizes territories: Traditional ecological knowledge, farm and land management; customs, traditions and norms; processing. Transhumance is inscribed in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (Greece, Italy, Austria) • Food produced by farmers with ‘pastoral identities’ has many of the characteristics that the EU Circular Economy Action Plan calls for (high-quality, functional, safe, efficient and affordable) In recent years, pastoral farms are increasingly facing challenges regarding their sustainability • Pastoral areas are often faced with social challenges: limited employment opportunities; high rates of abandonment and difficult access to land; poverty and limited access to basic services; generational renewal problems (rural youth is often emigrating) • Pastoralists are threatened by intensive/industrial production, while several problems reduce their socio-economic performance, access to markets and bargaining positions: Small farm sizes; inefficient practices, lower yields and productivity; low profitability and dependence on subsidies; asymmetric information • Pastoralists lack effective governance or are involved in organizations which do not share equally their specific pursuits, which render them vulnerable to policy and market uncertainties • Traditional land-livestock-labour configurations are being altered due to intensification • ‘Pastoral identities’ are threatened by bad sanitary conditions and excessive use of external resources – including crossbreeding with imported breeds and less feed autonomy • Labour is shifting from family to salaried forms - including migrant workforce, though mechanisms to integrate the immigrant workforce in the sector are limited • Family labour is considered a “free” input – although it can be more productive– and its costs are not taken into account, thus decreasing its perceived importance. • Gender issues. Men and women are affected in different ways by climate change, market integration and modernization challenges. As the agrarian world evolves towards multifunctionality, women are assuming more strategic roles in farm entrepreneurship, with a specific focus on processing, marketing and household duties and secondary positions in decision making Under these conditions, there is a lack of innovations that pertain to the philosophy of the system. In addition, pastoralists have limited opportunities to co-create innovations and business models that tackle their needs and are less inclined to adopt existing technologies and solutions

Pooling of pastoral resources can increase efficiency of pastoral outcomes in general, while combined with short VCP they have the potential to reduce GHG emissions. An enabling policy framework is necessary for Mediterranean pastoralism, however it does not focus specifically on pastoralism and its unique characteristics and this generalized approach sometimes decreases performance and does not contribute to resolve problems. PASTINNOVA is in line with the most important policy frameworks in force • The Farm to Fork Strategy and the ambitious environmental goals of Biodiversity Strategy of the EU for 2030 (Figure 1), many of which are highly relevant to pastoralism: focus on climate change mitigation and adaptation; a reduction by 50% in antimicrobials for farmed animals; restoring ecosystem and biodiversity functions; reaching 10% of areas with high diversity (agro-ecological infrastructures). • European Green Deal. Eco-schemes are proposed to address the Green Deal targets, in particular those stemming from the Farm to Fork Strategy and the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, and to fulfil the climate and environmental specific objectives of the CAP. However, measures for livestock are mostly oriented to intensive production and disregard the fact that pastoralism has integrated beneficial practices for centuries (e.g low intensity grass-based systems, extensive use of permanent grasslands, increased grazing periods, protection of genetic diversity of animals raised, silvo-pastoral systems, transhumance, common grazing) • Pastoralism is targeted by FAO Sustainable Development Goals – especially with regards to (i) higher incomes and access to land (2.3) for small scale-producers and vulnerable actors such as women; (ii) productivity combined with sustainable practices and resilience (2.4, 12.3); (iii) sustainable management of natural resources (12.2); (iv) keeping local livestock breeds (2.5.2) and; (v) efficient use of waste and by-products through valorisation of local knowledge (12.5) • PASTINNOVA is in line with the work of the “Union for the Mediterranean” (UfM) and fits perfectly into the dictates of Valletta Declaration on strengthening Euro-Mediterranean cooperation through Research and Innovation and on “contributing to a more competitive, socially inclusive and sustainable Europe adapted to challenges of climate change, demography and digitalisation”. A participatory inclusive approach based on Living Laboratories (LLs) will be undertaken to tackle the specificities of Mediterranean pastoralism. LLs in PASTINNOVA will be based on the creation of a common network on “Pastoral actors and VCP” (Figure 2) with a mission to pool existing pastoral resources (within PASTINNOVA partnership and from external sources) with different levels of maturity – from pioneer innovations to established practices -and to re-adapt, replicate (at higher TRL) and transfer the ones with high potential across Mediterranean Regions thus co-creating innovative solutions addressing the needs of end-users. The network will valorize experiences and best-practices and upscale them to wider audiences and areas. The common network on “Pastoral actors and VCP” will be articulated in a “Participatory Platform for Mediterranean Pastoralism” (PPMP) and four Regional LLs (RLLs) (Figure 2) • The PPMP will be comprised by one representative from each project partner and will (i) coordinate the process of pooling existing knowledge and other pastoral resources; (ii) serve as a nexus among RLLs ensuring inter-connection, communication, co-learning and information flows and; (iii) monitor the advancement of the RLL activities and tackle problems that could arise during the co-creation process. • The four RLLs will undertake the co-creation approach, co-designing implementing, assessing and characterizing innovative solutions (IBM), while also contributing to the validation of results, outputs and strategies. The RRLs will group countries from Regions with common economic, socio-political, cultural and environmental challenges and geo-climatic affinities in their pastoral systems (Figure 3). Each RLL will involve participants relevant to their main mission, which will be a domain chosen based on (i) the main challenges in the specific Region and (ii) the competences/prior activities of regional partners. Based on existing knowledge, PASTINNOVA will consolidate what makes the identities of pastoral farms and the different faces of their performances, gender balance, survival strategies over time and future trajectories under climate change and unexpected market conditions. It will deliver IBM targeted on pastoralism and its products to upscale performances of pastoral farms and Organizations and to rediscover ‘pastoral identities’ - for those who have chosen other pathways or altered their pastoral profile. For this reason, PASTINNOVA is pooling a significant amount of existing pastoral resources (knowledge, experience, project outputs, networks) elaborated by project partners in previous projects. However, the PASTINNOVA network (PPMP and RLLs) will foster a broad range of other best-practices, ideas and visions for co-creation and will not be limited to these specific IBM. The concept is to motivate and involve farmers and other actors in the co-creation of the innovations they require. • Technological/Production (TRL (Actual/Target) 5-6/6-7) • Organizational – Managerial Farm level (TRL (Actual/Target) 5-6/6-8) • Value chain – Market - Logistics (TRL (Actual/Target) 5-6/6-8) • Cooperatives - Associations – Farmer organization - Governance (TRL (Actual/Target) 5-6/6-7) PASTINNOVA employs a methodological framework which combines co-creation, co-assessments and impleme-ntation where four elements interact (Figure 4) (1) Diagnosis of needs (on-desk and participatory listing, identification and scoring of IBM); (2) Co-creation in RLLs, sustainability assessments of IBM; (3) Scaling up of successful examples; (4) Policy and market uptake. This framework is organized in seven Work Packages (WP). • WP0 involves project management and WP6 dissemination, communication and policy dialogue activities. • WP1 includes preparatory activities to establish RLLs and to discover, analyse and pinpoint IBM with high potential for the different Mediterranean Regions (literature analysis and qualitative interviews). • This information will feed WP2, within which RLLs will initiate the co-creation process. VCP related to IBM will be mapped and examined based on “Follow-the-Thing”, a qualitative and situated ethnographic method [21], to identify and map key stakeholders, practices and barriers that play a role along the VCP. In addition, selected IBM will be implemented by means of protocols that will be designed under the guidance of relevant partners; assessed by RLLs through specific sets of indicators; and characterized on the basis of their potential for upscaling. Since RLLs will provide input and feedback in numerous other activities, they will operate based on a combination of participatory methods (based on the number of actors involved in each occasion and the issue at hand): Focus groups with semi-structured scripts, collective workshops and world café (a simple, effective and flexible format for hosting large group dialogue, based on the understanding that conversation is the core process that drives personal, business, and organizational life [44]. • WP3 will be based on pooling data from previous projects and open repositories to provide (i) assessments of environmental sustainability (ES provision under standard methodologies e.g. IPCC tiers or on-site measurements; biodiversity and land use analysis combining GIS methods with standard models such as ‘MaxEnt’, ‘Clue’ and ‘Wordclim’; GHG emissions reduction with Data Envelopment Analysis, based on benchmarking farming practices that are beneficial to GHG mitigation [10]; LCA and S-LCA analysis using standard tools i.e. ISO standards (ISO 14040/44, 2006), methodological rules of the main international LCA guidelines for the livestock sector (FAO, 2016) and UNEP guidelines [46] for S-LCA); (ii) socioeconomic sustainability assessment (parametric programming, which is an optimization method that allows to derive optimal organization under different availability of scarce inputs) [29]. These assessments will feed characterization by RLLs in WP2 and highlight practices and methods towards mitigation/adaptation to climate change. • WP4 will provide a multi-tenant ICT tool to interconnect VCP actors and promote e-sales and will investigate consumer preferences on pastoral products through data from an online survey, using standard multivariate analysis techniques (e.g. Principal Component Analysis and Cluster Analysis [42]). This WP will also increase the involvement of vulnerable groups (especially women and young people) through a combination of participatory methods with a political ecology approach. • WP5 will adopt a bottom-up approach that will involve active involvement of LLs and participatory approaches (e.g. focus groups) to assess policies that affect Mediterranean pastoralism and propose measures to support it. This will be combined with the elaboration of business plans and support for pastoral Organizations (guidelines, empowerment). As part of this approach, the basis for a ‘pastoral eco-scheme’ (following the CAP’s Strategic Plan Green Architecture) will be delivered.

Pastoral products achieve adequate, effective and sustainable access to markets • Empowerment, guidelines, business plans to pastoral Organizations to increase bargaining power • IBM and policy interventions to identify pastoral products in distribution channels and markets • Direct product sales (and e-sales) from farms or SMEs, increasing food autonomy • Increase the capacities of pastoral professionals including health officers • Increased social awareness about pastoralism Enhance income and transparency across all links of the value chain • Business plans, guidelines for farmer organizations, public policy measures and VCP arrangements to improve the position of smallholder pastoralists • Promotion and direct sales to consumers • Options for multifunctionality – Job creation in cottage industry, processing and valorisation of secondary or by-products as well as strengthening links with other value chains (such as tourism) • Capacity-building to increase innovation potential and the ability of pastoralists to work together • Scenarios increasing employment and labour profitability Active roles of women and young people in farm management - Multifunctionality • Valorisation of their experiences and capabilities and adequate representation • At least two models where female and young family members will assume key roles • Arrangements for women and young people in all IBM Efficient use of natural resources and eco-friendly processes with low GHG emission • Assessments of all three dimensions of sustainability of pastoral systems, products and VCP • Resource-use efficiency and eco-friendly profile of pastoral products • Potential of IBM to reduce GHG emissions • Assessments of biodiversity and ES provision in current and future sustainable management conditions Reduce food losses, including post-harvest losses and valorising the waste left • At least four IBM about valorization of waste, by-products and/or products with low commercialization • E-commerce and direct sales to reduce food losses combined with analysis of consumer preferences • IBM and short VCP that reduce the perishability of pastoral products and increase their shelf life Higher operational standards for pastoral organizations. Apart from involving four relevant partners in the project Consortium, PASTINNOVA will liaise with a vast variety of pastoral Organizations (Section 3.3) (networks, Cooperatives, Associations etc) for which there are dedicated activities to increase the innovation capacities of their members and improve their level of organizational performance, reputation, effectiveness and access to markets (WP5) as well as the self-esteem of their members Inclusiveness and resilience, as PASTINNOVA IBM will be tailored to the specific characteristics of Mediterranean areas and actors, with positive socio-cultural impact for pastoral societies and communities (clearer ‘pastoral identities’, employment opportunities to reduce depopulation) and aversion of climate change effects. In this form of pastoral communities, women and vulnerable groups (smallholders, young pastoralists, unemployed) will have active involvement, through motivation and skills provision towards territorial development Increased innovation capacities for a wide range of VCP actors through training and information activities and the availability of IBM to increase their performances and competitiveness. Thus PASTINNOVA will shape more cohesive VCP, transparent and more receptive to market opportunities. Healthier societies. Through the dynamic coordinated approach of the project, an integrated strategy will be set up towards a deeper understanding and appreciation of pastoralism, that will be linked to healthier products and environments –greener and circular economy patterns, with less waste and GHG - and will pave the way for more sustainable pathways in other systems and domains. In addition, the project outputs will represent an important reference for the provision of other services such as wildfire prevention. Policy uptake. By proposing targeted policy options, PASTINNOVA will provide the background to resolve issues specific to pastoralism, accelerate agro-ecological transition and allow the system to prove its potential Targeted and solution-driven research. By systemizing and capitalizing on the accumulated expertise of the partnership. PASTINNOVA will have a significant contribution to holistic interdisciplinary research on pastoralism, accounting for the totality of its multiple facets and characteristics and providing training to young scientists to ‘fill the gap’ between their skills and competences and the needs of pastoral systems and people.