D2.4 Agroecology Territories as targets of agroecological transformation in Europe

Climate change and the ecological crisis force us to find ways to address the challenge of developing sustainable agricultural and food systems in Europe. Among the different approaches proposed, agroecology consist of a transformative approach of food systems based on core principles and promoting place-based approaches. Current literature emphasizes the importance to facilitate and foster agroecology transition at territorial level. Place-based approaches at community scale can play a great role in achieving conditions for transition. Related to this, the concept of Agroecology-Territories (AET) has been proposed and is based on territorial action on three dimension (i) the adaptation of agricultural practices, (ii) the conservation of biodiversity and natural resources, and (iii) the development of embedded food systems. The main goal of this work is to analyse the current development of AET or equivalent concepts in Europe and question the relevance of this concept as an upscaling pathway for agroecology, considering economic, environmental and social aspects.

A literature review as well as semi-structured interviews with country informants and key informants regarding potential AET were achieved. In a first step, the literature review has allowed to understand the current use of AET as well as related concepts in the literature. Secondly, 17 interviews with country informants have been achieved, allowing a better understanding of the current development of the concept in different European countries. Building on those interviews, 9 interviews with key informants from Italy, France and Germany provided elements on potential AET and allowed an analysis of 8 case studies in those countries.

The analysis achieved highlights the gradual emergence of different territorial schemes over Europe that support transitions to sustainable food systems, with three main roots in rural development, territorial food systems, and agri-environment and biodiversity conservation. Pathways of those schemes reveal that their scope enlarges progressively to integrate new issues and topics. The current use of the concept of AET in the literature seems to be limited to a specific community whereas an important body of literature was found on comparable territorial schemes or promoting the relevance of a territorial approaches.

Three schemes have been identified as having a good potential toward AET: Bio-districts, Eco-model regions and Regional nature parks (PNR) in France. The comparison of those schemes through case studies provides interesting highlights regarding the conditions, levers and barriers for sustainable transition pathways at territorial level.
The AET concept appears throughout this work as a fertile and promising frame to design and extend current existing territorial schemes and their area of action to promote the development of agroecology. Further work on the potential to implement the concept through existing territorial schemes seems to be necessary as well as a further analysis of the numerous existing territorial schemes and their area of action in relation with the concept of AET. Recommendation and perspectives towards the development of agroecology territories are drawn from this work.