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A project in Brandenburg, Germany is educating both adults and children about the local peatland ecosystem and how it contributes to the preservation of biodiversity.

Peatlands protect against flooding and they also withhold harmful substances, thus producing clean drinking water. In addition, they are particularly important for the climate, as they absorb and store several greenhouse gas emissions.

A series of events were organised, such as ‘peatland days’ for school and kindergarten groups, holiday camps for young people, family weekends, bicycle tours and exhibitions.

Find out more here.

The 7th meeting of the European Rural Networks’ Assembly Sub-group on LEADER/CLLD (Brussels, 4 February 2020) discussed the state-of-play of proposals relating to LEADER/CLLD in the post-2020 legal framework.

Various Member States shared their experience of LEADER achievements and explained how lessons from this may be incorporated into their future CAP Strategic Plans. Discussion workshops allowed the participants to define their priorities for the future LEADER system, based on current practices in different contexts. An update on the progress of LEADER implementation was also given.

Presentations from the day are available on the event page.

The highlights report of the LEADER Thematic Lab on 'Climate change mitigation and adaptation', which was held on 10 December 2019, is now published.

It includes key suggestions on how LEADER can initiate, plan, facilitate and support climate action in local rural territories.

The meeting - the third of a series of four ENRD Thematic Labs - identified the elements of an enabling LEADER framework for informing and supporting LAGs’ work with climate action.

The 10th meeting of the Thematic Group (TG) on Smart Villages took place on 22 January 2020 in Brussels, Belgium with a focus on Renewable Energy Communities.

The meeting brought together 49 stakeholders from 20 Member States (MS) to consider how Smart Villages can support a transition to a low carbon economy in rural areas. In this context, the revised European Renewable Energy Directive requires Member States to create an enabling environment for Renewable Energy Communities (RECs) to help meet Europe’s targets for climate change.

To prepare the ground for future CAP networks, there is a need to reinforce the connections between the activities of rural networks with those of farming stakeholders both at EU and national level.

This workshop took place on 5 February 2020 in Brussels, Belgium and aimed to explore how networks can be increasingly interlinked, specifically focused on improving connections between farmers, farmer cooperatives and National Rural Networks (NRNs), highlighting existing good practice and identifying needs for future development.

More event information, including PowerPoint presentations, is available on the ENRD website.

Two new publications produced by the ENRD Thematic Group on 'Bioeconomy and climate action in rural areas' offer support to rural stakeholders willing to shift to more climate-friendly rural bioeconomy practices.

The factsheet 'Decision support for climate action across the bioeconomy' provides practical examples of how rural entrepreneurs, farmers and communities can be supported in changing their practices to do more for the climate.

The briefing 'Sequestering carbon in soil and retaining soil carbon stores' collects lessons learnt in the current RDPs and offers orientations from the TG for the future CAP Strategic Plans.

This week is your last chance to enter the ENRD Rural Inspiration Awards. The #RIA2020 theme reflects the strategic priorities of the new European Green Deal

The focus is on good practice projects co-financed by the EAFRD that promote rural climate action or the bioeconomy.

Entries to #RIA2020 must be submitted by the National Rural Networks of EU Member States. It is currently envisaged that the Award ceremony will be held at the ENRD Bioeconomy and Climate Action Seminar in June 2020.

For inspiration, check out the new EAFRD Projects Brochure featuring the 25 finalists of the Rural Inspiration Awards (RIA) 2019 and the EU Rural Review 28 on 'Bioeconomy’ which is now available in six languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Polish.

A new guide published by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food presents the 37 LEADER Local Action Groups (LAGs) active in Slovenia in the 2014-2020 programming period.

The guide provides details about each LAG's activities and Local Development Strategy, as well as updated contact information.

In a new video by the French Rural Network, rural women explain the challenges they face and how some EAFRD-funded initiatives are advancing gender equality in rural France.

Gender equality remains problematic and in rural areas women face additional challenges such as the lack of services, like childcare facilities and public transport. In this video, rural women explain the problems they face and possible solutions. The video also features a series of - mostly bottom-up - initiatives in rural France that are addressing the situation and delivering results. The video is available in French thanks to the French Rural Network.

IFOAM EU - the European umbrella organisation for organic food and farming - published a guide to 'Using Eco-schemes in the new CAP'.

This guide has been developed primarily for policymakers and Member State officials involved in the national and regional programming processes of the CAP Strategic Plans.

It also provides support to other stakeholders and practitioners from the public and private sectors and civil society (including agricultural, environmental, food, health and consumer NGOs), with a direct or indirect involvement in the programming and evaluation process of the CSPs.

This summary report, prepared by the European Evaluation HelpDesk for Rural Development, is a synthesis of the evaluation components included in Chapter 7 of the enhanced Annual Implementation Reports (AIRs) 2019.

It provides a summary of the achievements and contributions of the RDPs towards the EU Biodiversity Strategy and Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and the CAP general objectives of fostering the competitiveness in agriculture, ensuring the sustainable management of natural resources and achieving balanced territorial development. 

Read the report here.

The knowledge gathered by SheepNet is available in the project reservoir of documents, examples and practices on practice-driven innovation to improve sheep productivity.

This Horizon 2020 project, concluded in autumn 2019, involved stakeholders from the six main sheep producing EU countries at that time: France, Ireland, Italy, Romania, Spain, United Kingdom, as well as Turkey. SheepNet aimed to establish long-lasting exchange of scientific and practical knowledge among researchers, farmers and advisors across Europe. Readers may also be interested in the 2020 EIP-AGRI Brochure on Thematic Networks under Horizon 2020 as well as the list of running thematic networks.