Promoting biodiversity: the final results of the European FRAMEwork project involving the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies

FRAMEwork, a European project funded by the Horizon 2020 programme, has been successfully completed. The Agroecology Group of the Institute of Plant Sciences at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, which has been promoting an innovative and collaborative approach to sustainable agriculture for years, collaborated on the project. At the heart of the initiative was the development and enrichment of Farmer Clusters: grassroots networks of farmers for the development and application of sustainable agricultural practices that respect local ecosystems.
FRAMEwork took inspiration from the Farmer Cluster approach already successfully tested in the United Kingdom, adapting it to different European cropping systems. The project supported the creation of new clusters and strengthened existing ones through collaboration with local, national and international stakeholders.

One of the main results of the project was the establishment of a self-sufficient European network of Farmer Clusters, linked to the Citizen Observatory and Information Hub, a digital platform designed to collect and share high-quality information and tools, particularly for monitoring biodiversity in agriculture.

"The project has highlighted the central role of agriculture in protecting fragile terraced landscapes, and future research will aim to propose methods capable of recognising and economically valuing, for the benefit of farmers, the ecosystem services generated by their careful management practices, adapted to the territory and oriented towards the conservation of local biodiversity," says Anna Camilla Moonen, professor at the Institute of Plant Sciences and project coordinator for the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies.

Research and scientific dissemination

The FRAMEwork project was characterised by numerous field research activities. In particular, one of the pillars of the project in Italy was the monitoring of functional biodiversity in olive groves and surrounding habitats, particularly pollinators, birds and natural predators of the olive fly. The data presented by Professor Moonen confirm that well-managed olive groves with good herbaceous vegetation cover promote greater functional biodiversity and contribute to the support of wild bees and butterflies. The Monte olive groves proved to be valuable environments, as important as the edges of fields, roads and surrounding woods. On the contrary, the abandonment of olive groves does not promote functional biodiversity, especially with regard to soil predators, in particular beneficial insects such as carabids and staphylinids, which are important for the natural control of the olive fly.

Alongside its research, Framework has developed an intensive outreach programme. In collaboration with the Natural History Museum of the University of Pisa, three BioBlitzes and various guided excursions have been organised on Monte Pisano. These activities have had a dual purpose: to strengthen the link between the population and the olive-growing landscape and to promote awareness of the role of agriculture in biodiversity conservation and climate resilience.

For further information

Knowledge hub: https://www.framework-biodiversity.eu/knowledge-tools

Video on the Farmer Cluster managed by the Institute of Plant Sciences:

https://recodo.io/cluster/view/3a0b36dc-c4d6-f423-c409-5de43c602285