Help us to protect Transylvania's treasures, by funding projects to improve rural incomes, support traditional agriculture, understand the ecology and biology of important wetlands and mountain hay meadow, and identify and protect key species and habitats.
Barbara's fund
We ran a range of very successful and interesting projects in 2011, including a conference in the European Parliament, biodiversity surveys of meadows and ponds, a survey of local farmers, a haymaking festival, several workshops and initiated the High Nature Value Farming Coalition of Romania. We communicated our activities and scientific results widely, through newspaper articles, television, websites, conferences, education activities, two nature trails and in a special journal volume. We were delighted to win the 2010 prize for an outstanding project in applied ecology from the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Barbara's fund and related grants directly supported the employment and training of six people and involved many others.
In 2011 we are extended our biodiversity research to new areas and species, investigating the seasonal migration of the common frog, increasing the scope of our farmers survey, running another hay festival, and extending our education and communication activities. Also, the team running the wetlands project formed an NGO to promote ecological knowledge, nature conservation and awareness of the natural world, through education, research, communication and partnership. Barbara's fund will support some of their new activities, and they will take over the wetland and hay meadow biodiversity projects which we already support.
Why is your support important?
We raise funding for these projects from bodies such as the UN Development Programme and the European Commission. Invariably, we can only receive such grants if we can provide matched funding from other sources. This is impossible for a small organisation without the support of people like you.
Projects for 2012
We are seeking your support to build on our successful projects in 2010 and 2011. These projects form three related strands: collecting information about the biodiversity and farming of the area, using this information in education and communication, and supporting the local economy. Together, these projects aim to understand and conserve the natural and cultural treasures of the region and the traditional agricultural community which creates and maintains them.
Environment and landscape
Biodiversity surveys. Sponsor an expert botanist, entomologist or ornithologist to help us to extend our biodiversity surveys of hay meadows. These surveys are important to provide the scientific evidence needed to justify designation of these habitats under Natura 2000 or local laws, and to develop management plans to maintain them.
Biodiversity features of traditionally managed grasslands Biodiversity features include ponds, hedges, bushes etc which provide a special habitat or shelter for particular plants and animals. They increase the variety of life in an agricultural landscape. They have been proposed as features to be supported through payments to farmers in the new Common Agricultural Policy because of their value for wildlife. This new project will produce information to inform this proposal, through a workshop and field work.
Hay-making events. Hay making is the most important agricultural activity in our area and maintains meadows that are among the most diverse in Europe. Hay making and related crafts are at risk because of the decline of traditional agriculture. Help to conserve the rich biodiversity of hay meadows by sponsoring or joining a hay-making event. These events help to preserve traditional meadow management by teaching people to mow grass by scythe, while cutting meadows at risk of abandonment which would otherwise become overgrown with shrubs.
Case study of ecological connections: migration of the common frog. The ecological connections between mountains, pastures, meadows, streams and ponds is important for at least some species, maybe keystone species, in high nature value grasslands. However, this does not appear as a factor in agri-environment policy and payments, which only aim to preserve agricultural habitats. A number of protected species, including birds and Amphibia, spent part of their lives in one habitat, but breed or feed in another. To protect these animals, it is necessary to protect all of their habitats and the places which connect them. Our case study of the migration of the common frog between the mountains and floodplain ponds, will investigate this phenomenon and offer advice to policymakers on improving conservation policy.
Local enterprise and agriculture
Social enterprise food company The rural economy is dominated by milk production, since milk and cheese are the main or only cash items sold by traditional farmers here. EU food hygiene regulations and falling milk prices mean that this way of life, that has sustained the communities for generations, will become impossible without adoption of modern methods and facilities. Without an income from milk, farmers must sell their cows, and the productive hay meadows - sustained by traditional methods for centuries and full of flowers and animals rare or extinct in Western Europe - will be abandoned to scrub or ploughed up. We are providing practical support for enterprises which use/buy milk from local farmers at a fair price, train and employ local staff, and produce new high value milk products that comply with the new regulations.
Young farmers campaign. Without young farmers, farming has no future. Our project will develop an advertising campaign to raise awareness of the value and of traditional farming, in order to encourage young people to become farmers or to continue farming. Target audience should include all of the local rural and urban population as well as potential and existing farmers. Wide media presence is planned.
Social survey. We will collect information, through surveys and interviews with farmers and others, on the activities, behaviour, plans and economic aspects of traditional farming in our region. It is important to understand farmers’ attitudes and activities if you want to design effective policies and interventions to increase their economic security and maintain their valuable stewardship of the land.
Local food strategy: a demonstration project. Persuading local people and businesses to buy local food is an important strategy in improving the economic viability of local traditional farming. Building on examples from England, we aim to develop a local food strategy which will support local food production and producers. This will include a rationale for individuals, local government, businesses, schools, hospitals, etc to increase their consumption of locally produced food and to raise their awareness of the economic, cultural, agricultural and ecological and environmental benefits of local food consumption and production.
Objective: to develop a local food strategy for the Pogány-havas microregion, which can be used as a model strategy for other regions.
More information at www.treasuresoftransylvania.org
Fundatia ADEPT is managing the funds for these projects. Donating through Justgiving is quick, easy and secure. It’s also the most efficient way to sponsor these projects: Fundatia ADEPT Ltd gets your money faster and, if you’re a UK taxpayer, Justgiving makes sure 25% in Gift Aid, plus a 3% supplement, are added to your donation.
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Barbara Knowles
