Life Project Of The Galician agriculture And Forestry Sector

Transcription

1 AFTER LIFE COMMUNICATION PLAN LIFE+ CAMPAIGN CHANGING THE CHANGE: THE GALICIAN AGRICULTURE AND FORESTRY SECTOR FACING CLIMATE CHANGE LIFE 07/INF/ES/000852

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3 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PROJECT Objetive The main objective of the project LIFE+ CHANGING THE CHANGE was to inform professionals from the Galician agriculture and forestry sector, school children and society in general about the problem of Climate Change, and to foster the participation of professionals at mitigating and adapting to climate change throughout their activities, without involving a decrease in productivity. The aim is to promote mitigation strategies and adaptation to climate change within the field, by encouraging the use of renewable energies (solar, thermal photovoltaic, biofuels, energy crops and manure use), by promoting energy saving and the efficiency of energy use, by offering alternatives in the management of agricultural and forestry waste, by promoting ways of farming in which soil conservation prevails such as conservation and organic agriculture, and by promoting measures that increase carbon storage in farming and forest soils. Results This project is within the LIFE+ component Information and Communication from the European Commission LIFE+ financial instrument for the environment, so that the results obtained throughout the 2 years of the project are mainly referred to the direct and indirect beneficiaries of the project. The results obtained are as follows: - A total of 814 professionals from the four main production subsectors in Galicia (wine, livestock, forestry and horticulture) attended the specific conferences and seminars, where we could obtain the information required in order to improve and adapt their production systems to the effects of climate change. - A total of 486 people attended the general seminars, who considered very positively the information provided. - A total of 537 children from primary and secondary school from rural and urban environments within Galicia were made aware of the problems and possible solutions at the school days Galician farms directly participated in the control of environmental indicators for a better management of farms towards a sustainable use in order to reduce the environmental impacts professionals were advised by the regional technicians in environmental issues. - National networks were established (with other Spanish regions as well as with other organizations), as well as international collaborations with Portugal, Italy and Poland in order to exchange information about climate change and the mitigation and adaptation strategies that are being carried out in each of those countries. 1

4 COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES The present document After-LIFE has the objective of describing the actions that are going to be carried out in order to guarantee the continuation of the activity of the project LIFE+ CHANGING THE CHANGE once the phase funded by the Commission is completed. Additionally, we will establish a communication system about the environmental issues dealt with at the project after it is completed, by developing specific and realistic activities assigned to the organization s staff and we will control their completion. These actions will be based around exploiting the information generated throughout the project as a result of the communication and information actions developed: Strategies for the mitigation of Climate Change in the agricultural and forestry sector Strategies for the adaptation to Climate Change in the agricultural and forestry sector Results of the diagnostic surveys of the agricultural and forestry sector facing Climate Change Informative materials within the Environmental equipment of the seminars: o Eco-guides for the wine sector o Eco-guides for the forestry sector o Eco-guides for the livestock sector o Eco-guides for the horticultural sector o Conference materials: Summary of the presentations given at the General seminars, Specific seminars and the workshops for the training of the technical staff. o Educational material for the school days Report about the environmental behaviour of school children at their daily activities. Published articles about the dissemination and communication actions. Compiled information about the activities and projects related to the environment and to Climate Change from different regions and also from other countries. Daily bulletins about environmental regulations. Agri-digital news about environmental issues. List of questions received through the eco-letterbox. Report about the results after analyzing the surveys of Environmental Indicators in the three periods at the four main subsectors. Layman report. 2

5 The dissemination methods for this information within the project involve the direct contacts with the experts, seminars, general and specific days developed by the organization, press articles, radio, TV, internet. The publications produced by the project are available for everyone in PDF format at the website of the project. These publications were handed in to the experts, the project collaborators, other organizations related with the field, etc. In the future, the following activities will be carried out Once the project is completed, we will carry out the following actions, on two formats: 1. VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT Website From the website created for the project: the project information will continue to be available at the website of the project, both at the subcategories of activities at the section Actions as well as at the section Documents. Most of the reports will be available in pdf format for the users. This virtual tool has been actively used for the dissemination of the reports in real time as the documents were being prepared. The website of the project will be available at least during the 5 next years once the project is completed. Since the website of the project LIFE+ CHANGING THE CHANGE is linked to the organization s website, the management of both of them will be done by the management team of the website of the organization. Advicing and communication channels The communication channel of the project will remain operative, via the technicians from each local office, and via the queries placed by or by telephone, so that we take care of all the queries that we receive. The answer to the questions will be the duty of the environmental officers of the organization. When it comes to questions that are too complex, too specific or too technical, then the question will be forwarded to the experts or the representatives from the organizations that collaborated throughout the project and with whom we keep fluent communication. 2. ON SITE ACTIONS The following actions will be carried out once the project is completed: Meetings and environmental events We will attend, both as invited participants or as speakers, all the forums, events and environmental sessions that we are invited to by the organizations related to the subjects dealt with in the project or the relevant administrations in this area. Following the experience acquired in the past more than 2 3

6 years of project, the members of the project LIFE+ CHANGING THE CHANGE have obtained renown and relevance in the environmental issues and in the effects of climate change on the 4 subsectors within the Galician agriculture and forestry sector, which ensures that they will be invited as experts to future relevant events within the sector. Without any doubt, all the networking developed in the past more than 2 years of project will continue to give results, even exponentially as it is occurring already. This information will be translated by the environmental officers of the organization and the Secretaries of the Executive Commission of the project of Rural Development and the Forestry and Environmental Productions. Dissemination of the products We will distribute in digital format all the documents prepared as a result of the project to the regional associations related to the sector, environmental organizations, universities, cultural centres, the media, etc, always keeping the LIFE logo of the project that was in them in the first place. Project continuation Even though the project has ended, the methodology that was used at the different awareness, information and communication actions will be used as good practices in other projects, both at environmental projects, rural development projects or any other areas in which we can apply them. We keep a close contact with the experts group and with the representatives from the collaborating organizations that participated in the project, so that they will collaborate in the new LIFE project of the organization with reference code: LIFE09 ENV/ES/000459, and entitled ECOREGA: Ecomanagement of organic waste from livestock farms and their impact on the emission of greenhouse gases (GHG), that will be implemented during 2011 and The measures and strategies of mitigation and adaptation to Climate Change in the agriculture and forestry sector that were programmed at this LIFE+ CHANGING THE CHANGE project, will be applied at the next LIFE ECOREGA project of the organization. Livestock farmers will incorporate the planned strategies for the management of the waste in their own farms, so that at the same time they obtain a fertilizer and energy, avoiding the use of other resources and reducing the emissions of GHG from farms. Additionally, the officers of the project that have prepared the documents and that have actively participated in its development, will be able to translate the good practices used in the implementation of the project as well as the results obtained in environmental issues and climate change issues in order to incorporate them to new projects, consulting activities and training activities that are going to be developed by the organization in the future. Environmental updates Due to the high success of the bulletin with information about the environmental regulations and the agri-digital news sent daily for the environmental consultants of the project, we considered appropriate to continue with them. The model for the bulletin, the format and the methodology used 4

7 for their preparation and dissemination will be maintained once the project has finished in order to be sent to the technicians from the local offices of the organization, apart from being available at the website for those users requesting it. Publications at specialized press During the two years of the project, we published a one-page article dedicated to issues related to the project at all the numbers of the magazine A Terra do gandeiro e o agricultor (specialized press for agricultural farmers and livestock farmers). These were related to environmental issues, climate change and its impact on the agriculture and forestry sector. This information was successfully considered by the readers, apart from increasing the awareness of the media staff on environmental issues, so that once the project is completed we foresee an increase in the articles related to the environment, to climate change and to the agriculture and forestry sector in general. 5

8 LIFE07/INF/ES/ Informe Layman LIFE + is the financial instrument for the environment that the European Commission counts on. Its objective is to contribute to the implementation, the update and the development of European policies and laws related to the environment, including the integration of the environment in other policies, and contributing to a sustainable development. The campaign CHANGING THE CHANGE is within the Information and Communication LIFE+ component, whose objectives are to disseminate information, to promote the awareness about environmental issues, and to support the accompanying measures such as information, communication activities and campaigns, conferences and training. CONTACT Unións Agrarias-UPA C/Doutor Maceira nº13 bajo Santiago de Compostela A Coruña Tel: Fax: life.cambiarocambio@unionsagrarias.org