The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development : project examples 2007-2013.
Date: 2014-07-25
Institutions: Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development
Subjects: EU regional policy, European Regional Development Fund, Internet, agricultural economics, climate change policy, cooperation policy, exchange of information, information network, innovation, new technology, project management, rural development, social impact, sustainable agriculture, young farmer

The European  
Agricultural Fund  
for Rural Development 
PROJECT EXAMPLES 2007-2013

Climate action

Cooperation & 
networking

Rural economy

Social inclusion

Young people

Innovation
support

Communication  
tools

Funded by the

 
European Network for Rural Development

The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development 

The  European  Network  for  Rural  Development  (ENRD)  is  the  hub  that 
connects rural development stakeholders throughout the European Union 
(EU). The ENRD contributes to the effective implementation of Member 
States’  Rural  Development  Programmes  (RDPs)  by  generating  and 
sharing knowledge, as well as through facilitating information exchange 
and cooperation across rural Europe.  
Each  Member  State  has  established  a  National  Rural  Network  (NRN) 
that  brings  together  the  organisations  and  administrations  involved 
in  rural  development.  At  EU  level,  the  ENRD  supports  the  networking 
of  these  NRNs,  national  administrations  and  European  organisations.  
http://enrd.ec.europa.eu/en/en-rd-presentation.cfm
Find out more on the ENRD website (http://enrd.ec.europa.eu)

The  EAFRD  Project  Examples  brochure  forms  part  of  a  series  of  ENRD 
publications that help encourage information exchange. Each edition of 
the brochure features different types of projects that have received RDP 
co-finance from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development 
(EAFRD).
Further  editions  in  the  series  of  this  EAFRD  Project  Examples  brochure 
can  be  downloaded  from  the  ENRD  website’s  publications  and  media 
section1  and  the  RDP  Projects  Database2  contains  many  additional 
examples of EAFRD assistance to rural development initiatives.

Managing editor: Markus Holzer, Head of Unit, EC Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development. 

Manuscript text finalised during May 2014. Original version is the English text.

© European Union, 2014

Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged. 

The contents of this publication do not necessarily express the opinions of the institutions of the European Union. 

The text in the publication is for information purposes only and is not legally binding.

Printed in Belgium

You can also order one paper copy free-of-charge via the EU Bookshop website: http://bookshop.europa.eu

Acknowledgements 
Project selection committee: Pedro Barbosa, Thomas Bertilsson, Kirsten Birke Lund, Juan Andrez Gutierrez, André Smal, 

Radim Srsen, Peter Toth, Mike Gregory (Chair), Virginie Sarah Viaene (Secretary)   

ENRD Contact Point editorial team: Tim Hudson, Peter Toth, Virginie Sarah Viaene 

Layout: Ryoko Abe

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http://enrd.ec.europa.eu/en-rd-library/eafrd_examples_of_projects_brochure_en/en/eafrd_examples_of_projects_brochure_en_home.cfm
http://enrd.ec.europa.eu/policy-in-action/rdp_view/en/view_projects_en.cfm

 
 
Contents

Examples of EAFRD projects  

Introduction 

Celebrating European success stories  
in rural development

Rural economy 

Agri-environment payments protect  
traditional vineyard practices in Greece 

Diversifying Northern Ireland’s  
rural economy 

Climate action 

EAFRD project helps Finnish farmers  
to tackle climate challenges  

Protecting the planet’s peat  
reserves in Austria 

Innovation support 

Funding innovative environmental  
management in France  

New smart phone app assists  
Austrian food producers 

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Cooperation and networking 

Baltic businesses benefit  
from transnational cooperation 

Transnational cooperation between schools  
leads to stronger local food chains  

Social inclusion 

Improving the quality of social farming  
facilities in Spain 

Tackling fuel poverty in rural France 

Young people 

French EAFRD project helps support  
young rural entrepreneurs 

New jobs for graduates from  
Lithuania’s tourist guide academy 

Communication tools 

Broadband Internet connections  
in the UK countryside  

Explaining agriculture’s ecological  
achievements in Austria 

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Celebrating European success stories 
in rural development 
S ince  its  launch  in  2007,  the  European  Agricultural 

Good practices

Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) has provided 
financial assistance to tens of thousands of differ-
ent  projects  throughout  rural  Europe.  It  continues 
to be used by Member States to support a huge number of 
different types of rural development projects that create a 
wide variety of benefits and advantages for all EU citizens.
Much of the EAFRD is used to assist rural businesses to 
improve supplies of healthy, tasty, affordable, and quality food. 
Our environment also benefits from significant sums of EAFRD 
support  that  helps  to  maintain  Europe’s  countryside  as  an 
attractive place to live, work and visit. Jobs remains another 
high priority for EAFRD projects which have had considerable 
success in both enhancing the quality of existing employment, 
as well as creating new jobs for rural areas.

Member States have thus been able to use the EAFRD to 
achieve smart, sustainable, and inclusive approaches to rural 
development  across  Europe.  What’s  more  the  Fund  makes 
major contributions to other high-impact areas that benefit EU 
citizens, such as conserving biodiversity and tackling climate 
challenges.

All EAFRD projects are implemented through the Member 
States’  Rural  Development  Programmes  (RDPs),  which  have 
supported  many  project  examples  of  EAFRD  good  practices. 
These projects offer a host of useful and interesting learning 
opportunities  that  can  be  harnessed  to  help  transfer  knowl-
edge  and  replicate  benefits  between  different  parts  of  rural 
Europe.

The  European  Network  for  Rural  Development  (ENRD) 
plays  an  important  role  in  encouraging  these  knowledge 
transfer processes as part of its remit to help Member States 
improve the effectiveness of RDPs. 

Getting more and  better benefits from  RDPs for EU citi-
zens is a core objective for the ENRD. Hence, this special edi-
tion of the ENRD’s EAFRD Project Examples brochure has been 
designed to highlight a selection of particularly successful rural 
development initiatives from the 2007-2013 EAFRD period. 

Each  project  has  been  carefully  chosen  for  their  results 
and  outcomes  and  together  the  14  project  examples  high-
light the EAFRD’s ability to help Member States produce a very 
diverse spectrum of worthwhile rural development benefits.

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Multiple merits

All  of  the  project  examples  in  the  brochure  have  been 
nominated by National Rural Networks (NRNs), who are also 
involved in helping the RDPs in their countries’ to produce more 
and better benefits for everyone. 

NRNs  nominated  EAFRD  project  examples  that  have  a 

multitude of merits in seven main categories, namely: 
•	 Developing the rural economy;
•	 Dealing with climate change; 
•	 Making use of innovation; 
•	 Boosting business opportunities and peer-learning 

through cooperation and networking; 
•	
Improving social conditions for local communities; 
•	 Supporting future generations of rural residents; and
•	 Using communication tools for developing rural areas.

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More  than  160  projects  from  14  countries3  were  nomi-
nated by NRNs and a special ENRD selection committee was 
organised to determine the final set of 14 project examples 
representing  10  EU  Member  States  that  are  featured  in  the 
following pages. 

Selection  processes  concentrated  on  appraising  the 
results and outputs from individual projects and the selection 
committee was extremely impressed by the large number of 
excellent success stories that NRNs identified. 

Hence,  the  project  examples  in  this  brochure  intend  to 
illustrate a valuable collection of EAFRD success stories that 
celebrate the EAFRD’s achievements during its first period of 
operations from 2007-2013. 

Members of the selection committee wish to express their 
gratitude to everyone who participated in the nomination pro-
cess. Special appreciation is extended to the NRNs who took 
time to provide such high quality nominations so quickly. 

We hope this collection of EAFRD projects can be useful 
for inspiring similar levels of high quality RDP projects for the 
2014-2020 period, thereby resulting in even more and even 
better benefits for EU citizens from the EAFRD.

For  further  practical  examples  of  the  EAFRD  in  action, 
see the ENRD’s database of RDP projects4. This contains 600 
interesting case studies from all Member States. The database 
is able to provide a far wider geographic coverage of project 
examples than this brochure’s articles, which were limited by 
the nomination process and selection criteria.

“The ENRD Contact Point was very impressed by 
the useful and interesting EAFRD projects that were 
nominated for this brochure by the National Rural 
Networks. We believe the selection of articles in the 
brochure demonstrates the breadth and depth of  
EAFRD projects and the Contact Point looks forward 
to continue to showcase new examples in the future.”

Mike Gregor y,   
Chair of the selection committee   

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Austria, Belgium, Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, the United Kingdom.

http://enrd.ec.europa.eu/policy-in-action/rdp_view/en/view_projects_en.cfm

 
 
Rural Economy

Agri-environment payments protect traditional 
vineyard practices in Greece

A gri-environment payments 

to  farmers  in  the  Member 
States account for a large 
proportion  of  the  overall 
EAFRD  budget  at  EU  level.  These 
payments  are  provided  to  help 
farmers  offset  some  of  the  ad-
ditional  costs  that  are  involved  in 
taking care of specific environmen-
tal resources.

A very broad range of different 
agri-environment  schemes  receives 
EAFRD co-finance through the RDPs, 
and  these  schemes  are  common 
for most parts of rural Europe. Their 
results  help  to  conserve  many  dif-
ferent types of birds, insects, flowers, 
trees,  amphibians,  mammals,  and 
other  biodiversity 
rare 
breeds  of  farm  animals).  Agri-
environment schemes are also used 
regularly to protect the quality of our 
soils, air, water, and landscapes.  

(including 

4

Traditional and extensive agricultural methods are  often 
promoted  by  agri-environment  schemes.  These  techniques 
tend to have proven track records for being effective in main-
taining  long-established  habitats  and  supporting  the  coun-
tryside’s attractive appearance. They also help to sustain the 
availability of traditional food, drink, and other rural products.

A typical example of one such agri-environment scheme 
can be found in Greece on the small Santorini islands of Thira 
and Thirasia. Here the Greek RDP has been channelling agri-
environment  funds  to  assist  local  vine  growers  to  continue 
their distinctive and time-honoured viniculture practices based 
on ‘pezoules’.

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Preserving the pezoules 

Pezoules  are  stoney  terraces  built  along  cliff  tops  or  in 
mountainous  parts  of  the  Aegean  isles.  Designed  to  pro-
vide  shelter  for  dry  and  wind  blown-land,  the  pezoules  are 
extremely  useful  for  maintaining  the  cultivation  of  nutrient-
depleted  slopes.  They  help  to  retain  rainwater  (a  frequent 
scarcity on Santorini) and provide unique landscape features.

Wine growing on pezoules can be a hard and arduous task, 
which yields relatively low quantities but high quality grapes. 
In Santorini, the vines have been grown on pezoules for more 
than 3500 years using a characteristic production method that 
the agri-environment payments help farmers to preserve. 

 
 
Unlike conventional vineyards, Santorini vines are grown 
close  to  the  ground  in  non-uniform  and  dispersed  patterns. 
The crops are pruned in a special way that curls them around 
in  basket-shaped  rings.  Such  a  system  provides  an  effective 
survival  mechanism  for  the  vines  in  harsh  and  dry  climatic 
conditions.

Farmers  are  eligible  to  receive  €900  per  hectare  per 
annum  over  a  five  year  period  from  the  agri-environment 
scheme for growing wine in this extensive way. More than 650 
hectares of vineyards, and 600 vine-growers, have benefitted 
from the EAFRD scheme. Outcomes protect the environment 
and  maintain  cultural  traditions  that  are  still  commercially 
profitable. 

Matthaios  Dimopoulos  from  the  Union  of  Santorini 
Cooperatives and Santo Wines recognises the EAFRD scheme’s 
role in protecting the islands’ traditional land use systems, and 
their associated economic advantages, noting that “Our mem-
bers  pride  themselves  on  the  quality  of  their  products  and 
this quality is achieved by maintaining traditional agricultural 
activity.”

Management agreements

Prior  to  receiving  payments  from  the  agri-environment 
scheme all participating growers need to make clear commit-
ments to manage their pezoules and vines in carefully agreed 
ways. 

As  with  the  myriad  of  other  agri-environment  schemes 
operational  throughout  rural  Europe,  Santorini  farmers  sign 
a  ‘management  agreement’  with  the  RDP  authorities,  which 
regulates the type of agricultural activity that is allowed on the 
land within the scheme (in order to ensure the desired environ-
mental outcomes). 

For  the  pezoules  scheme,  these  controls  stipulate  that: 
cultivation  and  pruning  methods  must  apply  traditional  tech-
niques; herbicides or fire are not permitted to control weeds; and 
trees,  hedges,  walls  and  field  margins  must  all  be  conserved.  
Compliance with these commitments is checked regularly by RDP 
authorities who are monitoring the scheme’s impacts.

To  date  it  can  be  shown  that  the  EAFRD  scheme  has 
made very real and positive contributions to preserve the vol-
canic island’s distinctive agricultural practices, ecosystem, and 
biodiversity. 

Another useful outcome observed from the agri-environ-
ment payments is that they help to reduce urbanisation pres-
sures  on  rural  land.  Santorini  remains  one  of  Europe’s  most 
well  known  tourist  destinations  and  so  the  pezoules  can  be 
threatened by high demands on the islands’ limited land space 
for  building  new  visitors  facilities.  Providing  support  through 
the  EAFRD  to  local  farmers  thus  helps  them  to  refrain  from 
destroying  the  pezoules  and  their  multifunctional  environ-
mental characteristics. 

“Our members pride themselves on the quality of their 
products and this quality is achieved by maintaining 
traditional agricultural activity.”

Matthaios Dimopoulos,  
Union of Santorini Cooperatives

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Rural Economy

Diversifying Northern Ireland’s rural economy 

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A griculture  provides  an  important  source  of  em-

ployment  for  most  rural  areas  throughout  the  28 
Member States. As more farms become more mod-
ernised they tend to require less labour, and so the 
EAFRD  includes  measures  that  help  diversify  rural  econo-
mies  in  order  to  create  new  types  of  job  opportunities  in 
the countryside.

Farm  diversification  has  been  shown  to  be  a  powerful 
driver of economic growth5, and all parts of rural Europe can 
make use of support from the EAFRD to increase employment 
that is not directly related to agriculture. 

Trends  indicate  that  diversification  is  more  prevalent 
in  western  and  northern  Europe,  but  southern  and  eastern 
Member  States  also  appreciate  the  socio-economic  benefits 
from mixed economies in rural regions. 

Lessons  can  be  learned  from  exchanging  information 
between countries about diversification ideas and experiences, 
as well as how the EAFRD can support such rural development 
processes. 

Farm diversification

Martin McClean from Northern Ireland’s Cookstown district 
in  the  United  Kingdom  is  a  case  in  point.  EAFRD  co-finance 
helped him to diversify the income base of his family’s beef 
farm, and Mr McClean’s experiences personify those of thou-
sands of other EU farmers who now enjoy incomes from dif-
ferent non-farming sources.

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 http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/analysis/external/employment/full-text_en.pdf

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Many  farm  diversification  projects  start  off  small-scale 
and are often based on a farmer’s personal interests outside 
of agriculture. This was true for Mr McClean who had a passion 
for making violins, violas, and cellos. 

He  first  started  crafting  string  instruments  when  he 
was  22  years  old.  Now  at  43,  Mr  McClean  is  internationally 
renowned for the high quality of his work and he prides himself 
on his ability to create high-spec products. “These instruments 
are not copies, instead each is tonally perfected according to 
the Cremonese system and artistically interpreted to create an 
individual instrument, each with its own personality”.

“After years of producing ‘hit and miss’ dimensional copies 
which  sometimes  worked  reasonably  well,  I  now  have  the 
knowledge and ability to reliably and repeatedly create instru-
ments which embody harmony, sonority, strength, sweetness 
and an extraordinary dynamic range”, says Mr McClean.

  EAFRD  assistance  played  a  key  role  in  the  growth  of 
this rural diversification success story through funding to help 
develop new business facilities and enhance his business skills.

Business growth

In  order  to  keep  up  with  demand,  and  provide  him  with 
more scope for expansion, Mr McClean needed to upgrade his 
instrument workshop. At the same time, he was keen to attract 
more clients by targeting high calibre musicians. His aim was 
to grow his craft business in a controlled way that would still 
be flexible enough to permit him to carry on farming.

Support  from 
the  RDP  helped 
to  achieve 
him 
his  aims  by  con-
verting  one  of  the 
farm 
buildings 
into  a  modernised 
workshop 
facility. 
Further EAFRD sup-
port  was  provided 
to help Mr McClean 

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undertake  training  in  business  planning,  taxation,  budgeting, 
and marketing techniques. A detailed marketing strategy was 
also prepared for the diversification project.

Expert  business  advisors  provided  valuable  inputs  into 
the marketing strategy, which greatly increased Mr McClean’s 
understanding  of  the  potential  range  of  customers  for  his 
instruments.  It  also  presented  him  with  plans  for  targeting 
different market segments. Such business development tools 
remain highly useful for any farm diversification project.

Promising outlook 

Future prospects for this farm diversification project look 
promising.  Success  is  indicated  by  continued  demand  and 
increased turnover, as well as the fact that the niche business 
has improved its sales during times of severe economic down-
turn elsewhere in the Cookstown rural economy. 

Mr  McClean’s  on-going  plans  for  the  business  remain 
focused on keeping abreast of his client base’s interests, par-
ticularly those musicians with a very high profile who can help 
promote the quality of his craftsmanship.

Speaking about the success of Mr McClean’s diversifica-
tion venture, Drew Robinson from Cookstown District Council 
said,  “Martin’s  support  from  the  Northern  Ireland  RDP  and 
Local  Action  Group  in  his  area,  South  West  Action  for  Rural 
Development (SWARD), has helped him to strengthen his violin 
business. He still remains an active farmer and his diversifica-
tion project has been very effective at giving him ‘more than 
one string to his bow’ - as we would say here.”

“I now have the knowledge and ability to reliably  
and repeatedly create instruments which embody  
harmony, sonority, strength, sweetness and  
an extraordinary dynamic range.”

Mar tin McClean,  
EAFRD beneficiary

7

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Climate action

EAFRD project helps Finnish farmers  
to tackle climate challenges 

8

T he EAFRD has a special emphasis 

on  helping  rural  areas  to  reduce 
the  potential  causes  of  climate 
change. It also places a high pri-
ority on funding rural development proj-
ects  that  help  countryside  communities 
and  businesses  to  adapt  to  changing 
climate conditions.

These  forms  of  support  from  the 
EAFRD are valuable all across rural Europe 
where  the  frequency,  and  extremity,  of 
shifting  weather  patterns  continues  to 
pose many problems. 

Hotter  drier  conditions  in  southern 
Member  States  are  increasing  risks  of 
drought, erosion, and fire, which affect not 
only  crops  and  habitats  but  also  human 
settlements  and 
incomes. 
Adverse effects from wetter and stormier 
weather are also more recurrent in central 
parts  of  the  continent,  whilst  warmer  seasons  further  north 
can  alter  arctic  ecosystems  and  encourage  the  migration  of 
new pests or other invasive species.

residents’ 

Member  States  acknowledge  that  agriculture  can  make 
major contributions to their global ‘climate action’ targets, and 
a  Finnish  EAFRD  project  has  successfully  demonstrated  how 
this can happen in practice.

Information impacts

Titled ‘Climate change and countryside’, the Finnish initia-
tive used funds from a RDP budget that supports information 
and communication campaigns for land managers like farmers 
and foresters.

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It  was  organised  by  the  Ministry  of  Agriculture  and 
Forestry’s  institute  MTT  Agrifood  Research  Finland,  and 
combined a mix of workshops, guidance materials, and net-
working actions. These sought to make scientific knowledge 
about  climate  change  more  useful  for  farmers  and  other 
rural stakeholders. Special attention was paid to promoting 
good  examples  from  experienced  farmers  who  described 
their own practices and experiments. 

Farmers,  agricultural  advisors,  academics,  and  public 
authorities  all  participated  in  a  series  of  some  12  different 
regional  workshop  events  that  were  held  during  the  project. 
Each workshop was attended (voluntarily) by around 30 partici-
pants, who were able to learn about ways of addressing poten-
tial problems and opportunities related to climate change.

 
 
Researchers  and  decision-makers  gained  valuable  infor-
mation  from  these  meetings  about  farmers’  perceptions 
towards  climate  change.  New  knowledge  was  also  gained 
about farmers’ information needs and their views on opportu-
nities or barriers for applying measure to mitigate against, and 
adapt to, climate change.

This  useful  project  outcome  is  underlined  by  Ms  Riitta 
Savikko  from  the  MTT  Agrifood  Research  Finland  institute. 
“Our  project  showed  that  farmers  are  keen  to  gain  informa-
tion  especially  on  how  to  adapt  to  climate  change  and  the 
potential of renewable energy solutions, whereas advisors are 
more interested in practical means for climate change mitiga-
tion. Despite their motivation, farmers see lack of time and low 
profitability as barriers to thinking about climate and environ-
mental issues”. 

Agricultural  production  remained  a  core  topic  and  point 
of interest for the workshops. Discussions helped businesses 
involved in agri-supply chains to recognise the strengths and 
weaknesses of practical mitigation and adaptation measures. 
Farmers’ knowhow and skills were improved in order to properly 
equip them with the capacity they need for adapting produc-
tion systems to new temperatures and precipitation levels. The 
EAFRD project also raised awareness about evolving climate 
policies and possible variations in related energy markets. 

Ms Sari Himanen from the MTT Agrifood Research Institute 
tells  how,  “the  project  has  shared  information  on  methods 
such  as  increasing  soil  carbon,  improving  resilience  towards 
weather  extremes  via  diversification,  farm-scale  renewable 
energy solutions, energy efficiency, nutrient recycling and pro-
tein  crops.  Farmers  are  encouraged  to  prepare  for  climate 
change  as  part  of  their  preparations  for  the  future,  in  order 
to allow farms to develop from generation to generation and 
remain resilient under many types of future changes.” 

Networking knowledge

An  important  goal  of  the  project  involved  establishing 
and  enlarging  a  network  of  followers  who  could  contribute 
to the project’s knowledge base and help spread the word to 
encourage more people to participate.

A  website  was  produced  (www.ilmase.fi)  to  host  all  of 
the project’s free advice and guidance. From November 2011 
to  December  2013  the  webpages  had  over  37  000  visitors. 
Popular  downloads  included  the  project’s  theme-specific 
information sheets and brochures on topics such as ‘climate-
friendly animal husbandry’ and ‘farm-scale renewable energy 
production’.

Networking  and  dissemination  activities  also  involved 
the  project  team  producing  articles  for  farmers’  professional 
magazines, and sharing information about climate change at 
agricultural events.

A network of 500 different stakeholders was established 
by the end of the EAFRD project. They included farmers, advi-
sors  and  teachers,  rural  developers,  decision-makers  and 
researchers. Results show that these project participants now 
have more information and are better able to prepare for cli-
mate change. 

“Farmers are encouraged to prepare for climate 
change as part of their preparations for the future.”

Sari Himanen,  
MT T Agrifood Research Institute

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Climate action

Protecting the planet’s peat reserves in Austria

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C arbon sequestration (also referred to as carbon fix-

ing)  is  a  term  used  to  describe  long-term  storage 
of carbon dioxide and other forms of carbon. Such 
carbon  storage  processes  occur  naturally  in  the 
environment through soils, plants, and other living matter. 
These processes that store carbon can help to defer risks of 
global  warming  and  changing  climate  patterns  by  slowing 
the accumulation of greenhouse gases.

Peat soils hold the potential to sequestrate more carbon 
than  many  other  soil  types,  and  so  protecting  peat  reserves 
can provide important long-term benefits for EU citizens. Peat 
soils also possess excellent natural abilities to support a rich 
mix of the biodiversity species that are protected by EU law. 
Thus, protecting Europe’s peat reserves also helps to provide 
important long-term habitat benefits for EU wildlife.

EAFRD co-finance can make useful contributions to help 
protect key environmental resources like peat moors. Results 
from an Austrian RDP project example at the Doblermoos in 
Kulm am Zirbitz demonstrate how this has happened on the 
ground.

Restoring precious peat

Doblermoos’  peat  resources  date  back  over  8000  years 
and cover around 10 hectares of a peat moor, which is esti-
mated to store approximately 100 000 tonnes of carbon (plus 
hold the potential to fix a further 2.5 tonnes of carbon annu-
ally). This extensively managed peat moor habitat is home to 
a diverse collection of native and migratory wildlife species. It 
is also valued for it’s characteristic landscape features.  

Despite the moor’s environmental attributes, commercial 
pressures  threatened  its  future.  Business  opportunities  were 
seen from cutting and extracting the peat for sale as horticul-
tural and/or heating products. However, this would have had 
negative environmental and social consequences in terms of 
lost  landscape,  wildlife,  and  carbon  storage.  Concerns  were 
also  raised  in  the  local  area  about  adverse  impacts  on  the 
quiet  rural  area’s  quality  of  life  from  increased  numbers  of 
heavy vehicles.

 
 
 
Led  by  local  mayor  Johann  Obermayer,  the  community 
responded to this threat with a proposal for an EAFRD project 
to  protect  and  conserve  Doblermoos.  “We  had  to  react  very 
quickly to present an alternative option that stopped the sale 
of the moor for peat extraction”, recalls Mayor Obermayer, “I 
contacted Peter Hochleitner from our regional nature conser-
vation agency and he confirmed the ecological importance of 
the moor’s habitats. Peter also informed me about the poten-
tial for possible measures that could enhance the peat land.”  

Project actions

Peat land habitats rely on wet conditions to maintain their 
quality,  but  many  European  peat  moors  have  been  drained 
over time to provide more productive agricultural areas. As the 
peat  dries,  it  erodes  and  looses  much  of  its  ability  to  store 
carbon, as well as support the same range of biodiversity. Peat 
land restoration measures tend therefore to 
focus on carrying out works to restore and 
maintain optimal water levels.

This  was  the  case  in  the  Doblermoos 
EAFRD  project  where  RDP  funds  were 
used  to  block  and  deactivate  previous 
drainage  systems  that  had  been  intro-
duced  in  some  parts  of  moor.  In  addition, 
the project cleared away areas of planted 
spruce forest to allow more natural regen-
eration  of  habitats  for  native  species,  like 
moor  grass  meadows.  Wetland  features 
including  ponds  and  streams  were  also 
improved  using  the  EAFRD  co-finance  in 
order  to  encourage  amphibians,  insects, 
and other elements of a typical peat moor 
ecosystem. 

Community  participation  played  a  pivotal  role  in  the 
project  actions,  because  the  long-term  aim  was  to  use  the 
moor as a recreational, educational, and eco-tourism resource 
that could provide on-going and sustainable benefits for local 
residents and businesses. 

The  project  contributed  to  this  via  funding  for  ‘all  abili-
ties’  access  to  the  moor  and  visitor  information  facilities. 
Community members also raised a large of amount of finance 
for  the  project  themselves  through  ideas  like  a  fundraising 
campaign called ‘My square metre of bird resting site’.

Positive outcomes

The  project  succeeded  in  preserving  the  moor’s  vital 
carbon sequestration capacity. What’s more, new nature con-
servation jobs have been created at the project site, which is 
regularly used for environmental visits by school pupils, older 
students, and tourists.

Biodiversity  outcomes  from  the  project’s  coordinated 
programme  of  restoration  actions  have  also  been  extremely 
positive.  “During  the  last  five  years  more  than  80  species 
of  breeding  and  migratory  birds  were  recorded  at  the  site”, 
observes  Peter  Hochleitner,  who  goes  on 
to emphasise, “We are particularly pleased 
with  the  project’s  success  for  birds  like 
Common snipe, Jack snipe, Eurasian wood-
cock, and Northern Lapwing which are clas-
sified by the EU as needing protection.” 

These  benefits  are  now  being  sus-
tained  by  agri-environment  agreements 
that  pay  for  continuous  extensive  grazing 
on  the  moor.  The  livestock  act  as  natural 
mowers  and  keep  the  peat  habitat  from 
becoming overgrown. 

Overall the project can be seen to be 
a good example of long-term win-win ben-
efits from the EAFRD for EU citizens and EU 
wildlife, both of which can be badly affected 
by climate change.

© Mag. Peter Hochleitner

“We had to react very quickly to  
present an alternative option that stopped the sale  
of the moor for peat extraction.”

Johann Obermayer,  
local mayor

11

Innovation support

Funding innovative environmental  
management in France 

things  to  many  different  people.  In  rural  development, 
innovation can relate to:  

I nnovation  is  a  term  that  can  mean  many  different 

 •	 Working in new ways: this might involve rural develop-
ment  approaches  that  apply  new  ideas,  use  new  tech-
niques, focus on alternative markets, bring diverse sectors 
and  stakeholders  together  via  new  networking  methods, 
support new priority groups, or find new solutions to social, 
economic and environmental challenges.

12

•	 Developing  new  products  and  services:  these  often 
result  from  testing  innovative  ways  of  working  and  can 
be created through the application of new or novel tech-
niques, partnerships, technology, processes, research and 
thinking.

•	 Adapting  proven  approaches  to  new  circumstances: 
is  also  an  effective  means  of  creating  locally  significant 
innovative  rural  developments.  This  form  of  innovation 
often arises from knowledge transfer between regions or 
Member States.

Such  diversity  of  innovative  actions  is  a  strength,  which 
the  EU’s  rural  development  policy  recognises  and  innovation 
is a ‘cross-cutting priority’ for the 2014 to 2020 period. This 
means  that  all  RDPs  are  able  to  place  special  emphasis  on 
funding innovative projects. Environmental and climate action 
projects are also ‘cross-cutting priorities’ for the EAFRD. 

Considerable  scope  therefore  exists  to  use  the  EAFRD 
for projects that involve innovative approaches to managing 
environmental issues. An interesting example of this type of 
project  is  found  in  France’s  Pays  d’Armagnac  (Midi-Pyrénées 
region), where new ways of conserving biodiversity and water 
quality have been tested successfully along rivers, roadsides, 
and field margins.

Differentiated management

Environmental authorities from the community of munici-
palities  of  Ténarèze  and  Bas-Armagnac  identified  a  need  to 
address  high  nitrate  levels  in  water,  and  intensive  soil  use 
by  agriculture.  Both  of  these  issues  were  having  a  negative 
impact on local biodiversity. 

As part of their strategy to help halt biodiversity decline, 
the authorities wanted to introduce new forms of pro-active 
environmental management. Their plan included piloting new 
ways  of  working  by  adapting  and  applying  novel  techniques 
that had been proven in other French areas. These innovations 
centred on making use of ‘differentiated management’ tech-
niques  to  foster  ‘spontaneous  vegetation’  that  could  act  as 
a  wildlife  habitat,  and  also  a  buffer  zone  to  protect  natural 
resources.

Hélène Volebele from the ‘Arbres et paysages 32’ environ-
mental  organisation  helped  to  coordinate  this  EAFRD  project 
and she explains the techniques that were used. “Differentiated 
management is a carefully planned environmental management 

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method that takes account of natural and 
human constraints for each individual situ-
ation  where  it  is  used.  It  aims  to  identify 
cost-effective approaches that require less 
maintenance but still produce the desired 
results in reliable and durable ways.”

Such  results  are  achieved  by  using 
a purposely chosen mix of plant species 
that can spontaneously create controlled 
areas of low maintenance, low risk, and 
high nature value vegetation. These act 
as  ‘ecological  corridors’  that  provide 
shelter  for  insects,  animals,  and  birds 
to move about within. They also provide 
‘habitat stepping stones’ that can link up 
different parts of a habitat to help ensure 
it remains fully functional as a place for feeding, breeding, and 
rearing young.

Native plant species are favoured for this environmental 
management  method  because  they  tend  to  establish  them-
selves quicker and remain more resilient so they can survive 
better in local conditions over the long term.

Beneficial outcomes

Outcomes from the EAFRD project have been beneficial on 
a number of fronts. Importantly, the results demonstrated new 
ways of working that have changed the behaviour of people 
responsible  for  managing  environmental  areas.  Ms  Volebele 
also draws attention to the project’s nature benefits. “We are 
very content with the results of our project which has worked 
well by creating new habitat areas for biodiversity along road-
sides, around river banks and in between farm fields.”

“In addition to biodiversity benefits, the spontaneous veg-
etation that was introduced beside water courses has helped 
to strengthen the river banks and this is an important natural 
form of flood protection. The plants also act as filters that can 
help  to  prevent  nitrates  from  polluting  fresh  water  supplies. 
New foliage shades aquatic species from too much direct sun-
light and can make the local landscape more attractive.”

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“On farmland, our new approach has helped to improve 
the  availability  of  biodiversity  habitat  features  and  enhance 
the  productivity  of  soils.  Other  socio-economic  and  environ-
mental benefits emerged from our choice of plant species to 
introduce along roadsides.”

“Here we found that they were useful for biodiversity but 
the  project  also  helped  to  reduce  erosion,  which  led  to  less 
mud on the roads and so improved safety. This saves munici-
palities money because the road surfaces do not need to be 
cleaned as regularly as before the project.”

“Our project has been very useful and it has made a real 
positive  difference  to  the  areas  where  we  applied  the  new 
differentiated  management  techniques.  Moreover,  once  the 
spontaneous vegetation is established it now manages itself 
virtually  for  free.”  For  more  information,  visit:  http://eau-et-
biodiversite.fr/index.html

“Our project has been very useful and it has made a 
real positive difference to the areas where we applied 
the new differentiated management techniques.”

Hélène Volebele,  
Arbres et paysages 32

 
 
 
 
 
Innovation support

New smart phone app assists Austrian  
food producers

14

E AFRD  support  has  been  key  to  the  modernisation 

of  Europe’s  agri-food  sector  through  projects  that, 
among  other  things,  include  adding  value  to  farm 
produce, enhancing quality aspects, and pro-active-
ly  promoting  the  excellence  of  Member  States’  food  and 
drink goods.

One increasingly popular way of promoting regional food 
products  is  through  a  short  supply-chain  approach,  which 
involves  local  farmers,  traders,  food  outlets,  and  regional 
authorities all working together to improve the supply of local 
food for local people.

Such  ‘direct  sales’  approaches  are  encouraged  by  the 
EAFRD and an interesting approach to coordinating the promo-
tion of direct sales supply chains can be seen in Austria. Here 
the EAFRD has been used with considerable effect to introduce 
high-tech  tools  for  helping  to  connect  consumers  with  food 
producers throughout the countryside. 

Farm goodies

The project is called ‘goodies from the farm’ and it centres 
around an online database of agri-food services that can be 
accessed  directly  through  the  project’s  website  (www.gutes-
vombauernhof.at) as well as through a special smart phone 
app that was developed by the project.

Around  1600  ‘Good  farm  holdings’  are  involved  in  the 
project,  which  also  takes  in  other  retail  outlets  from  six  dif-
ferent  Austrian  regions.  Consumers  are  able  to  use  the  app 
and website to find out where they can buy different types of 
local produce, like bread, meat, dairy, vegetables, fruit, juice, 
honey, herbs etc. 

Stefan Stinglmayr is the project’s coordinator and he clari-
fies the initiative’s goals, “It is not intended to sell products via 
the platform. The aim is to attract customers to the businesses 

and their farm products. Then they can get to know the people 
involved in producing and selling the food. This leads to more 
personal  customer  relations  which  is  good  for  both  the  con-
sumers and businesses.”

The high-tech EAFRD project allows consumers to receive 
up to date information about what type of produce is on offer 
in  different  locations,  the  opening  hours  for  the  outlets,  and 
even  navigation  options  to  help  ensure  that  customers  can 
easily find the food products they are searching for. Users of 
the smart phone app can even set it up so they receive a noti-
fication  whenever  they  are  close-by  one  of  the  participating 
sales points. 

Local food benefits

Domestic products are prioritised and in fact, the main aim 
of the project is to increase sales of Austrian farm products. 

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Outcomes  are  intended  to  underpin  core  elements  of  the 
rural  economy  in  sustainable  ways.  For  example,  by  working 
together,  businesses  participating  in  local  food  projects  like 
this can find new ways of selling more of their products and 
attracting new types of customers. 

Furthermore, reducing the number of businesses involved 
in a supply chain from producer to customer can increase the 
share of the final price received by those firms involved. Fewer 
links  can  also  facilitate  more  affordable  food  and  make  it 
easier for everyone to know where the food comes from.

Stronger  connections  can  be  established  between  local 
agricultural, tourism and food supply sectors. In addition, con-
sumption of local food products in rural areas leads to reduced 
food transport. This can create economic, environmental, and 
social  benefits  such  as  transport  cost  savings,  fewer  emis-
sions, less wear and tear on rural roads, reduced traffic con-
gestion  and  associated  improved  road  safety.  The  ‘goodies 
from the farm’ EAFRD project does just that, and this potential 
can in part be attributed to the project winning a finalist posi-
tion in the top four projects of a national competition profiling  
‘Climate protection in agriculture’.

Customer relations

Feedbacks  from  users  about  the  project’s  services  have 
been very encouraging and Mr Stinglmayr sees more scope to 
develop the initiative. “We are pleased with our successes so 
far and we know that more opportunities exist because cus-
tomers tell us they are pleasantly surprised to find so many 
farms offering so many goodies. We are exploring how more 
business can be involved and there is interest from enterprises 
such as wine taverns and other parts of the bio-economy. The 
app is very relevant for them since it offers them an additional 
marketing tool.”

15

As more people make use of the ‘goodies from the farm’ 
services,  the  project  has  realised  that  it  needs  to  evolve  in 
time with technological developments. “One of our challenges 
relates to making the service easier to use on different types 
of smart phones and tablets”, says Mr Stinglmayr. “We need to 
keep up to date with the technology that consumers are using 
because  screen  resolutions  and  screen  sizes  are  continually 
improving so we need to be able to adapt our app to ensure it 
is able to operate well with the latest equipment.”

“The aim is to attract customers to the businesses and 
their farm products. Then they can get to know the 
people involved in producing and selling the food. This 
leads to more personal customer relations which is 
good for both the consumers and businesses.”

Stefan Stinglmayr,  
Gutesvombauernhof project coordinator

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Cooperation and networking

Baltic businesses benefit  
from transnational cooperation 

16

T he EAFRD includes a useful collection 

of funding measures for helping rural 
businesses to improve their competi-
tiveness.  Results  from  this  support 
helps  local  companies  (many  of  which  are 
often very small family businesses) to con-
tinue their activities and so continue to pro-
vide EU citizens with benefits such as quality 
food,  interesting  rural  tourism  services,  and 
an attractive countryside.

Business  networking  is  promoted  by  the 
EAFRD as an effective rural development tool 
for improving competitiveness. Networking can 
help  businesses  to  cooperate  and  learn  from 
each  other,  share  costs,  identify  new  ideas, 
and  increase  their  impact.  Significant  suc-
cesses  have  been  achieved  by  the  EAFRD  in 
these areas, which are not just limited to coop-
eration between businesses at local or regional levels, but also 
extend across borders via transnational cooperation projects.
EU rural development funds have been supporting trans-
national  cooperation  for  more  than  20  years  through  the 
LEADER  Local  Actions  Groups  (LAGs).  A  great  deal  of  useful 
advice and experience has been collated on this topic to assist 
networking around rural Europe. This is available through the 
ENRD website6. 

A good example of the benefits that can be achieved by 
business  cooperation  between  LAG  areas  in  Member  States 
is  the  ‘cross-border  entrepreneurs’  project  that  was  jointly 
funded by the RDPs from Sweden and Poland.

Baltic connections

The  idea  to  seek  new  business  opportunities  through 
cooperation across the Baltic Sea started in Sweden’s Blekinge 
LAG  area.  A  Polish-born  tourism  operator  there  was  keen  to 
strengthen  links  between  Blekinge  and  LAGs  from  Poland  in 
order to identify new options for new business products that 
could be mutually beneficial for both countries.

LEADER funding was used to carry out fact-finding visits 
that connected Swedish businesses from Blekinge with Polish 
companies in Warmia-Mazury. All of the businesses involved 
were  selected  by  the  LAGs  for  their  strong  entrepreneurial 
spirits  and  potential  for  using  transnational  cooperation  to 
export new products or expand their market share.

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Tourism and food services provided a common focus for 
the  EAFRD  project,  which  successfully  networked  more  than 
250  participants  during  15  different  cooperation  events. 
Much  of  the  work  involved  seeking,  developing,  testing,  and 
marketing a range of new culinary heritage and eco-tourism 
opportunities.

Partnership consortiums and product development groups 
formed  to  work  on  specific  business  ideas  between  the  two 
countries. Outcomes led to new approaches for joint marketing 
and advertising that put in place sales agents with the same 
nationality as client groups that were being targeted by rural 
businesses. 

This  ‘matchmaking’  process  saw  three  formerly  unem-
ployed Poles set up their own small firms to provide profes-
sional services and five new micro-enterprises were launched 
in Blekinge.

Other  positive  impacts  from  the  business  connections 
included the set up and/or promotion of new culinary tourist 
routes, a ‘paradise garden’ and forest photo safaris. A special 
logo has now been developed to help brand this EAFRD proj-
ect’s new business products.

Business benefits

Tommy Svensson from Sweden’s Blekinge LAG is pleased 
with the business benefits that have been created saying, “Our 
project has been very successful for 29 small rural businesses 
that  have  learned  a  lot  from  working  together.  For  instance, 
a  Swedish  fish  smoking  business  was  inspired  by  a  visit  to 
a  Polish  cheese  smoking  company,  which  led  to  cooperation 
between the fish smoker and a local goat farm here resulting in 
a new smoked cheese for Swedish consumers. Polish smoked 
cheeses are well known, but Sweden does not have the same 
culinary heritage and it was the LAG cooperation that helped 
identify this business diversification option for Swedes.”

“Another  example  of  how  the  networking  project  has 
helped  our  businesses  to  be  more  competitive  relates  to 
exchanges  between  traders  at  rural  markets.  Polish  bread 
makers found new customers through participating at Swedish 
Christmas markets. And Swedish firms received prizes for the 
quality  of  their  market  products  from  a  famous  Polish  chef. 
The  business  reported  that  after  Polish  visitors  to  his  shop 
in  Sweden  saw  the  prize,  he  sold  double  the  amount  of  his 
products.”

“Our project has been very successful for  
29 small rural businesses that have learned  
a lot from working together.”

Tommy Svensson,  
Blekinge LAG

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Cooperation and networking

Transnational cooperation between schools 
leads to stronger local food chains 

M ember  States  have  the  possibility 

to  give  priority  to  EAFRD  projects 
that  promote  co-operation  be-
tween  businesses,  organisations 
and  communities  involved  in  rural  develop-
ment  activity.  The  EU  policy  document  that 
governs  EAFRD  operations7  reinforces  this 
point.  It  states  that  EAFRD  support  for  coop-
eration  should  be  provided  in  various  forms, 
confirming that: 

“Clusters  and  networks  are  particularly  rel-
evant to the sharing of expertise as well as the 
development  of  new  and  specialised  expertise, 
services and products. Pilot projects  are impor-
tant  tools  for  testing  the  commercial  applica-
bility  of  technologies,  techniques  and  practices 
in  different  contexts,  and  adapting  them  where 
necessary.”

18

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For this reason, the ENRD has been a proactive advocate 
of  EAFRD  projects  that  help  to  better  connect  rural  Europe. 
A  noteworthy  example  of  the  benefits  that  can  result  from 
such  cooperation  is  the  ‘Growing  Gastronauts’  project,  which 
linked  up  rural  development  groups  from  Estonia  (Hiiumaa 
Cooperation Network, and West Estonian Islands Partnership), 
France  (LAG  Pays  Vallée  du  Loir),  and  the  United  Kingdom 
(Shropshire Hills AONB Partnership, and Central Warwickshire 
Villages LAG).

School food cooperation

Communities  from  these  quite  different  parts  of  rural 
Europe  (in  terms  of  geography  and  culture)  found  common 
ground in their interests to strengthen links between schools 

and local food producers. Each of the areas had already iden-
tified a demand for rural development projects that could pro-
mote short supply-chains to connect farmers with local food 
consumers. Their aim for working together in a transnational 
partnership therefore focused on piloting new ways of learning 
from each other’s endeavours in this field.

Involving local school pupils in the project’s learning pro-
cess  was  another  main  goal  for  all  of  the  participants.  The 
pupils would be able to learn about farming practices and food 
preparation, as well as better relate to the benefits of buying 
local  food.  Cultural  exchange  aspects  of  the  projects  would 
also help the children to improve their language skills, make 
use  of  modern  communication  technologies,  and  provide  a 
positive experience of European integration in practice.  

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Charlotte Comare, Cultural Representative of Pays Vallée 
du Loir, feels that the project has succeeded in its objectives. 
“Our cooperation created a lot of useful outcomes for everyone 
involved and it would not have been possible to achieve these 
results if we had been working alone. We learned a great deal 
from each other through our exchange visits and online meet-
ings and we were then able to apply this new knowledge to our 
own situations and circumstances.”

One of the most useful results was the increased under-
standing  among  schools  and  farmers  about  each  other.  This 
has  built  up  a  very  useful  body  of  trust,  which  is  important 
for sustaining the relationships that were developed between 
school chefs, teachers, pupils, and food producers.

Pupils  who  participated  in  the  project  were  able  to  visit 
farms  and  see  the  food  production  process  for  themselves. 
Chefs were able to verify the care that farmers take when pro-
ducing high quality local food and thus increase the schools’ 
willingness to purchase regularly through short supply-chains.
Exchanges  between  the  school  chefs  were  also  fruitful 
and led to new skills being learned about the different culinary 
traditions in each country. Special dishes were then prepared 

by  the  chefs  to  allow  Estonian  pupils  to  taste  French  and 
English school food as well as vice-versa.  

Longer-term benefits from the project are expected since 
all of the communities are now more enthused and motivated 
to  continue  working  to  develop  short  supply-chains.  “Setting 
up the cooperation project was difficult and time-consuming 
but it has been worthwhile because we now know much more 
about building short supply-chains between schools and local 
farmers.  These  techniques  and  methods  were  not  very  well 
known  or  sufficiently  developed  before  the  project  but  now 
we  are  all  in  much  stronger  positions”,  comments  Charlotte 
Comare.

“In  Estonia,  the  two  islands  groups  are  pioneers  in  their 
country of this type of rural development. The English schools 
are also now well connected to local food producers and here 
in  France  we  have  even  set  up  a  new  logistical  centre  as  a 
result of the transnational project. This centre is successfully 
connecting farmers with schools and we expect it will act as a 
good demonstration project that could be replicated in other 
rural areas.”

19

“Our cooperation created a lot of useful 
outcomes for everyone involved and  
it would not have been possible to 
achieve these results if we had been  
working alone.”

Charlotte Comare,  
LAG Pays Vallée du Loir

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Social inclusion

Improving the quality of social farming  
facilities in Spain

remain 

E urope’s  farms  provide  EU 

citizens with a great many 
benefits.  Whilst  food  pro-
duction  and  countryside 
maintenance 
important 
outputs from agricultural holdings, 
farms  are  also  increasingly  used 
for health and therapeutic purpos-
es.  Developments  in  this  ‘Social 
Farming’ sector (also referred to as 
‘Green Care’) offer useful opportu-
nities to help farmers to diversify 
their income base, and it helps to 
highlight the positive contributions 
that  agriculture  makes  to  society. 
Social farms therefore represent a 
potential growth area for Member 
States’ rural economies. 

20

Different types of on-farm care 
facilities can be developed and suc-
cessful Green Care businesses reg-
ularly  operate  in  partnership  with 
public  or  private  sector  healthcare 
institutions.  In  this  way  the  institu-
tions oversee the professional care 
services  and  the  farmers  provide 
the therapeutic facilities.

Green  Care  activity  often  involves  relatively  simple  ser-
vices like helping social farm clients to improve key skills, such 
as personal responsibility, by looking after animals, taking care 
of  crops,  or  managing  wildlife  habitats.  These  routine  rural 
activities are very constructive for social farm clients, and the 
EAFRD represents an effective source of support to set up and 
enhance such rural healthcare services.

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L’Olivera 

Experiences  from  Spain’s  L’Olivera  cooperative  in 
Catalon ia highlight how the EAFRD can be used to help develop 
social farming projects that create win-win outcomes for rural 
areas and citizens with special needs. The cooperative special-
ises in organic agriculture as well as producing wine and olive 
oil. Its workforce includes people with disabilities who gain a 
great deal of personal development, as well as pleasure, from 
working at the cooperative.

 
 
L’Olivera Director, Carles de Ahumada, explains the coop-
erative’s activities. “Our organisation has two main roles: the 
inclusion  of  people  with  mental  disabilities,  especially  those 
in  less  advantaged  social  situations;  and  we  are  also  very 
focused on helping to develop the rural economy by using local 
resources”.

“By processing our agricultural products ourselves we can 
add  value  to  the  basic  crops.  This  approach  brings  in  more 
money to the local area and it is useful for social integration 
of disabled people because it provides a variety of different 
options  to  involve  people  in  the  production  and  processing 
processes.”

Social development

Some  36  people  work  at  the  cooperative.  Nine  jobs 
have been created for people with disabilities and their tasks 
include various manual labour duties, such as product label-
ling. All of the L’Olivera wine and olive oil is labelled by hand, 
which allows the cooperative to promote its produce as being 
made with great care and personal attention to detail.  

Support  from  the  EAFRD  helped  to  create  three  of  the 
job places for people with special needs, through a develop-
ment project that modernised the wine production process and 
upgraded L’Olivera’s visitor facilities. “We received rural devel-
opment funding to cover part of the costs involved in installing 
new temperature control mechanisms during the fermentation 

of our wine. This has been useful for the wine production pro-
cess because it gives us higher quality wines.”

“We  also  used  the  rural  development  funds  to  improve 
our  reception  area  and  tasting  room  at  our  premises  where 
visitors come to try our products. This was important because 
we continue to attract an increasing number of tourists and we 
want to give them a good impression of our work here”, says 
Mr de Ahumada.

L’Olivera’s  involvement  in  rural  tourism  is  appreciated 
by other regional businesses providing visitor services. These 
are  taking  advantage  of  the  development  benefits  that  can 
be obtained from working together to promote local food and 
wine products through ‘enotourism’ marketing.

A series of enotourism routes are in place to direct tourists 
around  the  mountainous  scenery  where  L’Olivera  is  located. 
These include a route along the Corb river valley which encour-
ages tourists to visit different shops, restaurants, farms, and 
other places providing local food and wine specialities.

“Our visitors are interested in the quality of our olive oil 
and wine, which has been endorsed several times at national 
and  international  level.  Such  recognition  helps  to  boost  our 
workers’ enjoyment of their jobs, which is good from a thera-
peutic  perspective.  It  also  reinforces  the  reputation  of  social 
businesses like ours as providers of not just quality rural care 
services, but also quality agricultural products as well”, sums 
up Mr de Ahumada.

“Our organisation has two main roles: the inclusion of 
people with mental disabilities, especially those  
in less advantaged social situations; and we are also 
very focused on helping to develop the rural economy  
by using local resources”.

Carles de Ahumada,  
L’Olivera Director

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Social inclusion

Tackling fuel poverty in rural France

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incomes and vulnerability. These rural residents may depend 
on the social housing sector and not be eligible for energy effi-
ciency grants or initiatives that are provided for owners of pri-
vate homes.

A  social  inclusion  project  in  central  France  has  success-
fully  helped  to  address  this  issue  of  rural  fuel  poverty,  and 
EAFRD co-finance was provided to bolster the project’s benefi-
cial rural development outcomes.

Affordable homes

Utility charges were one of the underlying factors behind 
the  launch  of  this  EAFRD  project,  which  recognised  the  role 
that  energy  efficiency  measures  can  play  in  reducing  social 
exclusion caused by families at risk from fuel poverty. 

Virginie  Boireau,  Coordinator  of  the  project’s  partner 
organisation, Association Les Compagnons Bâtisseurs, points 
out that, bills are often the most hard-to-pay domestic costs 
for  families  in  difficulty.  So  we  wanted  to  assist  families  to 
control this basic and essential expenditure in order to make 
their daily life easier and more affordable.”

22 F uel poverty (also referred to as energy deprivation) 

happens  when  a  household  is  unable  to  afford  the 
most  basic  levels  of  energy  for  adequate  heating, 
cooking, lighting and use of appliances in the home.

Negative  impacts  from  fuel  poverty  include  restricted 
heating use, cold and damp homes, debts on utility bills and 
reduced  household  expenditure  on  other  essential  items.  In 
addition, fuel poverty is associated with physical and mental 
health  illnesses,  including  depression,  asthma  and  heart 
disease.

Fuel  poverty  is  present  in  all  Member  States  and  data 
from the EU Fuel Poverty Network8 indicates that the problem 
is  particularly  acute  in  Eastern  and  Southern  Europe,  where 
energy  deprivation  disproportionately  troubles  rural  house-
holds and those affected by unemployment.

Risk  of  fuel  poverty  in  rural  areas  can  be  high  because 
properties are often not connected to gas networks and miti-
gation measures may be more expensive or difficult to carry 
out.  Problems  can  be  further  exacerbated  for  rural  families 
suffering from other social exclusion problems related to low 

8 

http://fuelpoverty.eu/about/

 
 
 
 
Project  actions  were  planned  and  implemented  through 
a  coordinated  approach  by  local  authorities  and  social  sup-
port agencies. Their main aim involved identifying a group of 
families who would volunteer to be trained in energy efficiency 
actions that used energy monitoring tools and energy saving 
devices.  These  families  would  then  act  as  ‘energy  efficiency 
ambassadors’ to show their friends and neighbours the sav-
ings  that  could  be  achieved  by  changing  the  way  they  use 
energy and water. 

Some 24 ambassador families participated in the project 
and  Ms  Boireau  recalls  that,  “It  was  difficult  to  find  ambas-
sador families who were able to devote the time needed. We 
held  public  information  meetings  to  explain  the  project  and 
these events helped to attract volunteers. The local agencies 
and authorities were also very useful in identifying volunteers 
and sharing the appropriate skills with the families involved.”

“From  our  experiences,  we  learned  that  the  success  of 
projects like this needs the right type of preparations. Time is 
needed to ensure the families understand their role and how 
the project will benefit them. It is useful to spend as much time 
as  possible  building  good  relationships  between  the  project 
team and the ambassador families. This helps the families to 
feel at ease, increases their sense of ownership of the project 
and their willingness to encourage other families to be more 
efficient  in  the  way  that  they  consume  resources”,  explains 
Jean-Baptiste  Massé,  Animator  of  LAG  Parc  naturel  régional 
de la Brenne.

Cost savings  

Project participants received water and energy measuring 
instruments,  such  as  power  meters  and  flow  meters.  Other 
low-cost  equipment  including  multi-sockets  for  plugs  with  a 
switch, low energy light bulbs, and shower-stop systems were 
also  tested  by  the  ambassador  families.  Their  findings  were 
then  presented  to  the  local  community  during  ‘eco-gesture’ 
events.

“Thanks to the installation of water and energy measuring 
instruments and equipment to reduce consumption, the fami-
lies were able to show their neighbours that they could save 

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more than €100 a year in electricity bills and more than 50 
cubic metres of water”, verifies Ms Boireau.

Visualising consumption in euros per year helps people to 
become aware of their behaviour. This method proved to be 
effective and persuasive for mobilising other families to adopt 
energy  efficiency  measures.  One  of  the  ambassador  house-
holds whose two children slept with small lamps lit all night 
was happy to discover that low energy bulbs only consumed 
around €2.90 of power each year. The same family also used 
the power meters to spread the message around their friends 
and neighbours that they could save nearly €70 from turning 
a television off when no-one is watching it.  

Such savings highlighted by the EAFRD project have not 
only helped to tackle social exclusion in rural areas but they 
also make positive contributions to the Member States’ goals 
concerning climate change. 

“Energy and water bills are often the most  
hard-to-pay domestic costs for families in difficulty.” 

Virginie Boireau,  
Coordinator of the Association  
« Les Compagnons Bâtisseurs »

 
 
 
 
Young people

French EAFRD project helps  
support young rural entrepreneurs 

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Y oung  people  represent  the  future  of  rural  Europe 

and the EAFRD provides a useful toolkit of funding 
options  to  help  improve  opportunities  for  younger 
people  in  the  countryside.  These  include  projects 
aimed at increasing living standards and quality of life for 
the younger generation of rural residents. Measures in the 
RDPs  are  also  available  to  help  younger  people  to  enjoy 
successful rural careers in sectors like agriculture, forestry, 
food, and local services.

A mix of different employment support options exists in 
the EAFRD toolkit for young people. Business mentoring, skills 
training, peer networking and investment aid are all possibili-
ties that young people can take advantage of from the RDPs. 
Results from a successful EAFRD project in France’s Midi-
Pyrenees region reveals what can be achieved by coordinating 
such support for young entrepreneurs.

Youth employment

Named, ‘Place aux Jeunes’ the project’s title explains its 
main aim of ensuring a place for young people in the develop-
ment  of  their  rural  region.  Demand  for  the  project  stemmed 
from  research  carried  out  by  authorities  in  the  Pays  du 
Ruthénois  area  that  showed  the  negative  impacts  of  youth 
depopulation  pressures.  Other  findings  from  the  territorial 
analysis highlighted gaps in career start-up support for young 
people and particularly for those with ideas for their own busi-
ness ventures.

An EAFRD project plan was therefore formulated to redress 
this  gap  in  support  services  for  younger  people  between  18 
and 35 years of age. It took a flexible approach and opened its 
doors to encourage any young person with any type of busi-
ness idea to participate. 

 
 
farm (where the presentations and itineraries will be provided 
in English as a niche language training facility.)

Another example of the new businesses that were sup-
ported  by  the  project  includes  Marlène  Enjalbert’s  animal-
assisted-therapy  service.  This  rural  enterprise  involves  using 
dogs as a form of treatment to improve people’s social, emo-
tional, or cognitive functioning. 

Ms  Enjalbert  had  qualifications  in  canine  education  and 
the  EAFRD  project  helped  her  launch  her  career  as  a  self-
employed  provider  of  animal-assisted-therapy  services  for 
children and elderly people. “It’s a wonderful means of com-
munication,  above  all  for  people  with  difficulties”,  says  Ms 
Enjalbert  who  is  now  running  her  own  business  and  working 
with clients from retirement homes and medical centres spe-
cialised in the development of patients’ muscular and move-
ment skills.

Future prospects

By  the  end  of  the  EAFRD  project,  three  new  businesses 
had  been  realised,  four  more  were  under  development  and 
expected to start in the near future, while a further five busi-
ness ideas from the young entrepreneurs were under develop-
ment with longer term horizons. 

Marie-Manuela  Sandu  was  involved  with  the  project’s 
delivery and she is also pleased with its achievements saying 
that, “the initiative was considered as a great success for the 
local authorities involved. The authorities are willing to repeat 
this  operation  and  the  project  could  be  expanded  to  act  as 
a ‘breeding ground’ for mobilising more young entrepreneurs.” 

“We could benefit from the experience of people who 
have already been in our situation, who really know 
what they are talking about.” 

Hélène Maviel,  
EAFRD project beneficiary 

25

A  group  of  12  individual  young  entrepreneurs  were 
attracted  to  the  project,  all  of  who  were  over  25  years  old. 
The project started by providing each of them with a detailed 
understanding about how the local authorities, agencies, and 
business groups could be used to help younger people set up 
and succeed in business.

Guidance  was  then  provided  by  experienced  business 
advisors  on  the  skills  that  the  young  entrepreneurs  would 
need to start their own professions. Feedback on this aspect 
of the project was very positive with participants commenting 
how the support reinforced their identity as entrepreneurs and 
made them more confident.  

Other  participants  noted  how  “it  was  very  useful  to  see 
things that we should avoid”, and pointed to the benefits for 
them from meeting with decision-makers who could help sup-
port their business ideas. 

Rural enterprise

Hélène Maviel was one of the project’s young entrepre-
neurs and she remarks how the business mentoring helped her, 
stating that, “It was very enriching and maybe the most impor-
tant part of the training. We could benefit from the experience 
of people who have already been in our situation, who really 
know what they are talking about.“ 

Ms  Maviel  went  on  to  use  the  project  to  set  up  a  new 
rural tourism business, and she has plans to further strengthen 
her self-employed position by developing a novel educational 

Young people

New jobs for graduates from  
Lithuania’s tourist guide academy

26

R ural 

tourism  continues 
to be a growth sector for 
young  people  in  many 
Member  States,  where 
the  EAFRD  works  in  parallel  with 
other Funds (from EU and nation-
al  sources)  to  invest  in  projects 
that  attract  tourists  to  visit  and 
discover  the  countryside.  These 
types  of  rural  development  proj-
ects  range  from  introducing  new 
types  of  tourism  facilities  and 
services  to  modernising  or  up-
grading existing amenities.

A  common  goal  for  EAFRD 
tourism  projects  lies  in  providing 
that 
high  quality  experiences 
encourage  visitors  to  stay  longer 
and  better  appreciate  the  diver-
sity that rural regions  offers.  Skills 
training forms a key part of regional 
tourism  strategies  (especially  for 
new entrants like young people) because hospitality and infor-
mation  services  are  so  important  to  the  success  of  ‘tourist 
experiences’. These visitor impressions are increasingly impor-
tant  for  tourism  providers  as  more  visitors  use  social  media 
channels to provide feedback about their experiences. Positive 
feedback can help to generate more business, whereas nega-
tive  online  comments  may  deter  new  tourists  from  using  a 
service or visiting an area.

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Tourism Academy

In Lithuania’s Zarasai Region, the EAFRD has been used to 
provide such skills for younger people through a new ‘Academy’ 
project  for  rural  tourist  guides.  This  RDP  initiative  was  intro-
duced to highlight how rural tourism businesses can be devel-
oped as alternatives (and/or supplements) to more traditional 
forms of rural employment. Project objectives hence focused 
on helping encourage young people to stay in rural areas, and 
counter the strong youth depopulation pressures that regions 
like Zarasai suffer from.

 
 
Zarasai holds significant potential as a visitor destination 
due to the great natural beauty of its unspoilt countryside and 
its  interesting  array  of  cultural  tourism  attractions.  However, 
gaps existed in the availability of qualified visitor guides and 
so the project was launched to train ten people from Zarasai’s 
younger generation as professional tourist guides. 

Each  rural  community  in  the  Zarasai  region  now  has  its 
own specialist tourist guide thanks to the EAFRD project. They 
have been trained, using techniques endorsed by Lithuania’s 
national  Tourism  Department,  to  provide  information  and 
advice  services  for  domestic  and  international  visitors  in  the 
region. The guides can also provide information and advice to 
businesses providing tourism services. 

An essential part of the training involved learning about 
what  tourists  like  to  know  about,  including  the  best  ways 
for  discovering  a  region’s  particular  specialities  and  cultural 
assets. This aspect of the training was especially useful for the 
Academy project participants, as noted by Svetlana Veikšrienė 
who  graduated  from  the  course  and  is  now  a  qualified  rural 
tourism guide. “I am from Zarasai and I was always interested 
in my region’s history, development, and surroundings. Being 
engaged  in  the  area  through  the  project  motivated  me  to 
search for new opportunities.”

“I find that tourists are very interested in the services that 
I provide as a qualified guide. Visitors ask a lot about the his-
tory and development of the rural communities and their prod-
ucts. Our area’s local crafts are a popular topic among tourists. 
I really enjoy communicating with people about these things 
and spreading knowledge about the best things in my region.”

Cooperation benefits

Ms Veikšrienė has a positive outlook on future demand for 
her tourism services and she believes that this can be devel-
oped  even  further  through  increased  cooperation  between 
tourist guides and other tourism providers. “It would be good to 
work closer with the Zarasai Region Tourist Information Centre 
because this is a place where many visitors come to first of all 
when they arrive in our region.”

“The quality of the services that are provided by qualified 
guides like myself could be advertised through this Centre. At 
the moment we get most of our business from Internet book-
ings  and  closer  cooperation  in  the  tourism  sector  here  could 
help everyone.”

Such  cooperation  would  help  to  further  improve  the 
region’s  rural  tourism  economy  and  provide  more  opportuni-
ties for younger people like Ms Veikšrienė to stay in their home 
areas.  “As  soon  as  a  person  becomes  a  qualified  guide  it  is 
easier to plan for the future in a rural area because it provides 
work possibilities. The training project had a signifi-
cant impact on me deciding to stay in the local com-
munity and earn a reasonable living”, acknowledges 
Ms Veikšrienė.

“Being engaged in the area through  
the project  motivated me to search  
for new opportunities.”

Svetlana Veikšrienė,  
Zarasai tourist guide

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Broadband Internet connections  
in the UK countryside 

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I nformation  and  Communication 

Technologies  (ICT)  are  considered 
by Member States to be essential 
tools for unlocking the potential of 
rural areas and making them more at-
tractive places to live, work, and visit. 
ICT represents a valuable rural devel-
opment tool, which offers a wide range 
of beneficial opportunities for Europe’s 
countryside. 

Broadband  Internet  technology  is 
one of the indispensable ICT tools that 
will  influence  the  long-term  prosperity 
of rural areas, and EAFRD co-finance has 
been used by Member States to improve 
the  supply  of  rural  broadband  services. 
This occurs through investment support 
for ICT infrastructure as well as through 
‘softer’  approaches 
that  encourage 
rural  communities  to  identify  their  own 
broadband solutions.

RDP experiences from Wales in the 
United Kingdom highlight the effective-
ness of such softer approaches to using 
EAFRD  for  facilitating  improved  broad-
band access.

Community-led solutions

Many Welsh rural areas suffer from poor broadband con-
nectivity, typically less than 2Mb/s. Some parts of the coun-
tryside have been further disadvantaged by uncertainty about 
whether  Internet  providers  will  provide  a  high  quality  broad-
band coverage. 

they received help from the Welsh RDP to investigate possibili-
ties from community-led solutions. EAFRD support was used 
to carry out feasibility study research that gave the communi-
ties the initial knowledge they needed to help them respond 
effectively to their needs in the ‘Information Society’.

Residents  and  businesses  in  the  more  remote  areas  of 
Monmouthshire  County  wanted  to  address  this  problem  and 

Findings  from  the  study  provided  the  communities  with 
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clearer  understanding  of  the  main  issues  that  can  affect 
access to appropriate broadband facilities. 

Referring to the study, Mike Powell from Monmouthshire 
County  Council,  notes  how  it,  “confirmed  the  detail  that  was 
required to identify the worse affected areas and where com-
munity-led  solutions  could  be  viable.  It  also  confirmed  that 
lack of broadband access could deter economic development 
in these areas, as well as impact negatively on quality of life.” 

Local broadband networks

in 

the 

Recommendations 

feasi-
bility  report  underlined  the  benefits  from 
empowering  communities  to  take  forward 
their  own  ideas  for  accessing  broadband. 
Logistical  support  was  also  suggested  to 
help  communities  form  their  own  ‘local 
broadband  groups’  and,  as  a  result,  four 
different  groups  were  set  up.  These  cov-
ered  the  areas  around  Penallt,  Grosmont, 
Llandenny, and Devauden.

Mr  Powell  observes  how,  “canvassing 
individuals  in  those  communities  helped 
them to constitute groups capable of coor-
dinating  the  technical  and  financial  pro-
gramme  that  followed.  In  Grosmont  for 
instance, they deliberately looked for group 
members  with  technical  skills,  especially 
broadband  technologies,  financial  skills,  and  the  dynamic 
skill to muster support from their community. The group was 
hungry to secure a good broadband solution as they saw the 
opportunity  to  grow  their  own  businesses  from  home,  enjoy 
the benefits of on-line schooling, home shopping and all the 
benefits  that  were  perceived  as  belonging  only  to  the  larger 
conurbations.”  

© Disconnected Wales

Each group had an ambitious set of tasks involving: stim-
ulating demand in their community; applying for funding and 
raising finance; identifying suppliers and negotiating the best 
technology and business model; procuring suppliers; and man-
aging the delivery of their solution for the community. 

Actively engaging with the community to drive uptake of 
the broadband service was also a high and on-going priority 
for the groups. 

Penallt’s  broadband  group  became  the  first  to  deliver 
their solution”, says Mr Powell. “They were passionate about 
the  opportunity  to  have  at  last  a  good  broadband  solution. 
They had the ability to call on outside assistance to manage 
the  finances,  the  technical  appraisals,  and  project  manage-
ment for installing a microwave link that connected 
through existing phone lines.”

A wireless solution was also found for Grosmont, 
and  fibre  was  used  to  connect  Devauden  with  its 
nearest access point which was some distance away.

Success factors

Mr  Powell  is  happy  to  report  that  successful 
outcomes  from  the  EAFRD  project  have,  “enabled 
people  to  work  from  home  and  expand  their  busi-
nesses, keeping more money in rural areas.  Families 
are now able to enjoy a much wider range of online 
services.” 

As  many  as  450  homes  and  businesses  now 
enjoy a faster broadband speed due to this project 
- making the homes more technologically accessible 
and the businesses more economically competitive. 
He  notes  the  benefits  of  factors  such  as, 
“focusing  on  the  potential  demand  for  the  service 
and  perseverance”,  concluding  that  “the  important  thing  to 
consider is how will the service be maintained and operated in 
the future - and can this be achieved sustainably?” 

“Lack of broadband access could deter economic  
development in these areas, as well as impact  
negatively on quality of life.” 

Mike Powell,  
Monmouthshire County Council

29

Communication tools

Explaining agriculture’s ecological  
achievements in Austria

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C ommunication  can  be  used  in  different  ways  for 

improving  the  effectiveness  of  RDP  activities.  Ac-
cordingly, the ENRD has been proactive in providing 
advice and guidance to Member States about use-

ful approaches for communicating the EAFRD. 

A ‘communication gateway’ on the ENRD website9 hosts 
a  diverse  collection  of  different  communication  examples 
from Member States. This unique library of rural development 
material reflects core ENRD tasks involved in identifying and 
transferring  good  practices  that  can  be  useful  for  improving 
the  effectiveness  of  RDPs  (in  order  to  gain  more  and  better 
benefits from the EAFRD for EU citizens).

One  way  that  the  ENRD  identifies  this  knowledge  base 
about  RDP  good  practices  is  by  following  the  outcomes  of 

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rural development competitions and award schemes that the 
Member States organise. Many of these schemes are run by 
NRNs, and other EAFRD stakeholders also organise their own 
dedicated prizes for good practices.

Such schemes are valuable because they can be designed 
to focus the attention of RDP beneficiaries, the general public, 
or others, on particular types of rural development actions that 
are considered as a high priority for communication. Resultant 
good practices can then be used to inspire the replication of 
similar activities elsewhere. Prize ceremonies may also attract 
media attention, which helps to further disseminate and com-
municate key messages about the EAFRD.

9 

http://enrd.ec.europa.eu/policy-in-action/communicating-rural-development/eafrd/en/eafrd_en.cfm

 
 
Meadow Championship 

An excellent example of this communication approach is 
the  Vorarlberg  Meadow  Championship  in  Austria.  It  received 
EAFRD project support for its role in identifying and explaining 
environmental  good  practices  on  farmland  meadows  in 
Vorarlberg (a county with a high proportion of RDP beneficia-
ries from Austria’s agri-environment measure). 

Max  Albrecht  has  been  involved  with  the  championship 
and  he  explains  its  main  aims.  “We  know  that  farmers  take 
a lot of pride in their work and this can be seen in their com-
mitments  to  competitions  such  as  those  judging  the  quality 
of farm livestock breeds or food products. We also know that 
farmers  make  vital  contributions  to  conserving  the  environ-
ment and so the idea of our competition was to tap into their 
pride  about  the  results  of  their  environmental  management 
work here in Vorarlberg”.

“We frequently forget that the maintenance of rural land-
scapes very often requires a great deal of effort. The Meadow 
Championship intends to make people aware of what farmers 
do to preserve our cultural landscapes. At the same time, the 
Meadow Championship also shows that farmland habitats for 
plants and wildlife species can be protected most effectively 
when land management methods are adapted to the specific 
needs of these species’ habitats.”

Hence the championship is organised with multipurpose 
communication goals. These intend to raise awareness among 
farmers about good practice techniques for nature conserva-
tion,  as  well  as  increase  the  general  public’s  understanding 
about farmers’ roles in protecting landscapes and wildlife. 

Award winners

Three  different  prize  categories  comprise  the  Meadow 
Championship.  They  cover  awards  for  farms  that  have 
achieved  outstanding  environmental  achievements  on  either 
a particular part of their land or throughout their entire farm 
holding. A further prize is given for environmental performance 
on Alpine farms.

Each entry is assessed by expert agri-ecologists who visit 
the farm to inspect the meadows and appraise the outcomes 
from the various agri-environment techniques. All participating 
farms are then evaluated using transparent selection proce-
dures and the winners are named at an annual ceremony.   

“Winning  farmers  are  selected  for  their  skills  in  cost-
effective  nature  conservation  and  their  ability  to  success-
fully  balance  multi-functional  agricultural  businesses.  The 
prizes praise future-oriented farmers who recognise the long-
term  importance,  to  both  their  business  and  the  wider  rural 
economy,  of  taking  responsibility  for  protecting  biodiversity”, 
informs Mr Albrecht.

Some  400  farmers  have  entered  the  competition  and 
been  assessed  for  their  meadow  conservation  contributions. 
All of the participants receive a certificate that confirms their 
farm’s  ecological  credentials,  and  some  farmers  have  used 
this  as  marketing  tool  to  help  advertise  the  environmental 
quality of their products. 

Top  prize  winners  in  the  three  categories  not  only  gain 
a  great  deal  of  positive  publicity  but  they  also  win  an  all-
expenses-paid skills training trip to learn about good practice 
agri-environment methods on other farms in Austria. 

Feedback from the winners reveals their satisfaction with 
this innovative EAFRD project that has good potential for rep-
lication in other Member States. “I would recommend my col-
leagues to participate in the Meadow Championship. When we 
got the certificate for the Meadow championship in September 
last  year,  we  gained  a  lot  of  positive  reactions  from  all  our 
neighbours”, concludes prize-winner Marianne Schindler. 

“The image of a beautiful and colourful flower  
meadow is highly appreciated by the population. 
However, few people know that this diversity  
is caused only by traditional land use practices.”

 Markus Grabher, 
Meadow Championship prize winner

31

Previous issues  
of eAfrD brochures 
 Available from the EU Bookshop: 

 http://bookshop.europa.eu

The European  Agricultural Fund
for Rural Development
Examples of Projects brochure

The European Agricultural 
Fund for Rural Development
Examples of Information and Communication 
Technology (ICT) projects 

Projects brochure

ICT projects

EN

EN

EN

EN

The European Agricultural 
Fund for Rural Development
Examples of Leader projects

The European Agricultural 
Fund for Rural Development
Examples of ‘Green Growth’ projects 

The European Agricultural  
Fund for Rural Development 
Examples of Food projects 

The European Agricultural  
Fund for Rural Development 
Examples of Forestry projects 

Funded by the

Funded by the

Funded by the

Funded by the

LEADER projects

‘Green Growth’ projects

Food projects

Forestry projects

EN

EN

EN

EN

The European Agricultural  
Fund for Rural Development 
Examples of project linkages  
with other EU Funds 

The European Agricultural  
Fund for Rural Development
Examples of project support for  
young farmers and younger people  
in rural Europe

The European Agricultural  
Fund for Rural Development 
Examples of projects  
providing environmental services  

The European  
Agricultural Fund  
for Rural Development 
Examples of projects 
supporting social inclusion

Funded by the

Funded by the

Funded by the

Funded by the

Project linkages with
other EU funds

Youth projects 

Environmental services
projects

Social inclusion projects

You can find the complete list of all project  

received on the ENRD website at the following link:  

http://enrd.ec.europa.eu/publications-and-media/eafrd-project-brochures/

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
We would like to express our sincere thanks and 

appreciation to all  National Rural Networks and  

Local Action Groups that participated in the 

 selection  process: Austria, Belgium (Flanders),  

Estonia, Finland, France, Greece,  Hungary, 

 Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, 

Spain, the United Kingdom (Northern Ireland,  

Scotland and Wales).

You can find the complete list of all project  
received on the ENRD website at the following link:  
http://enrd.ec.europa.eu/publications-and-media/eafrd-project-brochures/

 
Rural Development Gateway 2014-2020
http://enrd.ec.europa.eu/policy-in-action/cap-towards-2020/rdp-programming-2014-2020/

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