Rewarding 15 years of Euromontana commitment to the topic of mountain products, the use of the optional quality term (OQT) “mountain product” was protected in November 2012 by the European Union with the (EU) regulation No 1151/2012. Following that, the European Commission adopted the delegated act (EU) No 665/2014 in...

The EU mountain products legislation is alive, now it is time for producers and Member States to really seize this opportunity to give more added value to mountain areas. On 18th October 2017, around 100 mountain actors from all over Europe took part in a conference on “How to better...

The European Committee of the Regions (CoR) has published a Brochure entitled “The need for a White Paper on Rurality: from a local and regional perspective, For a European rural Agenda after 2020”. In this brochure, representatives of the CoR, members of the European Parliament and 3 organisations from the Civil...

A new web portal for the promotion of EU agricultural products is now available via the CHAFEA web site. The portal is mean to help organizations find funding, partners, and information on how to enter new export markets.  Importantly, the portal also contains an eligibility checker where organizations can check whether...

Agriculture in European mountain areas plays a key role for society. Farming activities protect landscapes and provide society with vital ecosystem services and agriculture is an integrated part of the livelihood of mountain communities. However, mountain farming is not sufficiently competitive and resilient in the current socio-economic context. Mountain food...

Access to agricultural land has become a major issue throughout Europe - we are witnessing loss of land, land degradation, land concentration, land price increases and speculation. Yet the growing demand for local, fair and organic food cannot be met without the land and the committed farmers. Community Supported Agriculture has...

Due to the mountainous topography of the Basque Country, livestock breeders often lose a lot of time by going to seek their herd in the mountains every day, which is especially stressful for part time farmers. Thus, the livestock breeders expressed a need for change in the livestock management. This...

On April 6th, 2017, Euromontana’s team and members of the South-West Europe Circular Economy Group visited Alzen, a village in the Pyrenées Ariégeoises, in the south-west of France. Alzen has managed to become an attractive destination for new inhabitants, including young people. Indeed, in 40 years, Alzen quadrupled its population....

On February 24, 2017, Elisabetta Parravicini, Vice-President of Euromontana and President of member organization ERSAF (Ente Regionale per i Servizi all’Agricoltura e alle Foreste), presented Euromontana’s work and future objectives at a meeting on Italian mountains as driving forces for development. Elisabetta Parravicini began by recounting the history and outlining...

Model Sheep Fold is a good example of how traditional farming methods are supported by technical exper-tise to ensure that the traditional way of life in Romanian villages may be maintained. Solar panels supply the shepherds with electricity for light and for charging their cell phones. This enables the shepards...

The main objective of the Guidelines is to provide a non-binding complement to other guidelines and offer advice to RDP evaluation stakeholders on how to carry out the evaluation activities for answering the common evaluation questions related to innovation. Since the RDP’s effects on innovation in rural areas can be...

As mulheres brasileiras marcaram presença no Concurso Boas Práticas em Agricultura Familiar, organizado pela Reunião Especializada sobre Agricultura Familiar do Mercosul (Reaf) e pelo Programa Fundo Internacional de Desenvolvimento Agrícola da Organização das Nações Unidas (Fida). Nessa segunda edição, dos oito projetos premiados, três foram de brasileiras.   Essas são três...

Social farming, or care farming as it is also called, defines short or long-term activities that use agricultural resources such as animals and plants to promote and generate social services in rural areas. Examples of these services include rehabilitation, therapy, sheltered employment, life-long education and other activities that contribute to...

“Mountain regions, territories of innovation” was the title of an international conference held on January 11-13, 2017 in Grenoble, France. The conference was organised by Labex Item, the platform for mountain research and territorial action in the French Northern Alps; it regroups academic and public institutions and other local stakeholders...

At SIMRA’s first General Assembly, celebrated in Barcelona last May at the Mediterranean European Forest Institute (EFIMED), we got the chance to see first-hand how inhabitants of the Comarca of Bages are minimizing the impact of forest fires in their area. This location was a very fitting place to learn about...

The Centrales Villageoises (“Village Centers”, in English) are local companies aiming at developing renewable and sustainable energies in rural and mountain territories in France by involving citizens, local communities and businesses.

The project was born with the aim of decoding and explaining what makes a good idea or project successful in often under populated, isolated or challenged geographical areas. It aims to drive innovative solutions through reconfiguring social practices and implementing proven and successful civil society actions. The SIMRA project is...

Wherever you go, whatever you produce, whatever you believe in, Women of the mountains are determined to lead their societies for survival.

The project “Adotta un terrazzamento” [“Adopt a terrace” in English] aims at regulating and expanding mountain farming activities by giving any interested person the opportunity to adopt a terrace and provide direct or long-term support to the mountains of the Brenta Valley, in the Alps region in Italy.

Extensive livestock farming is the most important population-fixing activity in Iberian rural areas. This is so because, unlike other activities, it requires people to take care of the animals every day. Furthermore, in many marginal rural areas, extensive livestock farming is often the only possibility that the territory has to...