Losing Soil
Land is a finite resource. And we are losing fertile farmland at a fast pace. In Europe alone, 11 hectares of soil are sealed under the concrete of expanding cities every hour. Since 1990, the EU (in its current borders) has lost 15 % of its agricultural area, that is approximately the size of all Spanish farrnland.
We need farmland to grow our food. We also need it for the production of timber and fibres. And we need to preserve farmland for the many wider functions and public goods it delivers: it can sustain a rich biodiversity, it helps mitigate climate change and stores and purifies water.
Securing Land
Most agroecological farmers, particularly new entrants, are struggling to get adequate and secure access to the land. They are faced with several opposing trends:
- Land concentration on large, intensive farms.
- Speculation and land grabbing.
- Lack of tenure security.
- Competition between food and energy.
All over Europe, civil society initiatives are taking action to secure access to land for agroecological farming. lt can be achieved by freeing the land through citizen investment, agreements with public authorities, knowledge transfer or land stewardship agreements. These have tobe up-scaled and more ideas and methods need to be developed to increase agroecology throughout Europe!
New Generations
European farmers are a greying population. More than half of European farmers will retire within 10 years, while only 7 % are under 35. Many senior farmers have no successors in their family, and have no identified successor outside of it.
Our organisations are working to facilitate farm succession and entry of newcomers in a number of ways:
- training and advising young farmers and future farmers.
- advising senior farmers and landowners to facilitate farm transmission.
- acquiring farms to put them at the disposal of new entrants, particularly newcomers, on favourable terms.
- advocating for the preservation of existing farms and their transfer to a new generation.
- advocating for better support mechanisms to new entrants and progressive entry into farming.
Organising farm succession
Today, when a Farm comes onto the market after a farmer retires, it is usually acquired by neighbouring Farmers. The result is a Farm disappears and Farms that are already !arge become even bigger.
Facilitating entry of newcomers
Newcomers are new entrants into farming who do not have a family background in agriculture. Although it is hard to quantiFy precisely, they are entering agriculture in growing numbers in many parts of Europe.
Do you want to know more about the details of the issue of losing fertile farm land and what problems new farmer generations Face today?
Check our recources site with detailed informations, facts and figuresr Learn more about our strategies.
Land as Commons
Our organisations strongly believe that everybody can and should have a voice in defining how land is used and managed.
Throughout Europe, land is predominantly under individual ownership. Landowners (both private and public) are granted very significant, sometimes absolute, rights on their property, which are often used at the expense of tenant farmers, and other land users.
For us, managing land as a commons means finding a better balance between the needs and capacities of landowners, farmers and other users of the land. Managing land as a commons also means directly engaging consumers, local communities and other land users.
Our approaches take into consideration the central concern of preserving farmland for current and future generations, and ensuring that the vital contribution of the land towards the quality of our water, soil and ecosystems is respected.
We are experimenting with various ways of managing land as commons:
- freeing land from the sales market and holding it in perpetuity for the benefit oF agroecological Farmers.
- supporting and developing various tenure regimes that rebalance users’ rights and ownership rights: leasehold, environmental leases and stewardship agreements, common lands.
- supporting and developing various tenure regimes that rebalance users’ rights and ownership rights: leasehold, environmental leases and stewardship agreements, common lands.
- freeing land from the sales market and holding it in perpetuity for the benefit of agroecological Farmers.
- providing tools for local communities to directly engage with and support agroecological projects, through donations, ethical investment or volunteering.
- collaborating with public and private landowners, who wish to develop better use and governance of their land.
