AEOLE- a collaborative initiative for the co-benefice of farmers and biodiversity
Abstract
The “Cluster Herbe” is an original collaborative network that promotes the co-design of R&D projects and multi-scales innovations from biotechnical tools to organizational approaches that promote grassy animal productions. This initiative is located in the Massif central, a 85 000 sq.km highland region in the middle of France mainly covered by permanent grasslands. It gathers a large set of partners from research, development, agriculture and food industries, farmers and stakeholders. Since 2016 more than 50 projects have led to improve knowledge on grassland ecology, climate change mitigation and adaptation, to evaluate intrinsic quality of meat and cheese products and to develop innovative economic schemes. Our contribution will focus more specifically on the AEOLE project. Different tools were designed to support users in the transition of their livestock systems towards more grass-based production methods, and to optimize multifunctionality (tradeoff between ecosystem services) in breeding systems. The first tool is a typology of 60 types of grasslands related to their agroecological potentials. This knowledge has been integrated into a multifunctional diagnostic tool that support farmers to optimize their grass-based system. Finally, a serious game was created to raise farmers’ awareness of the potential of semi-natural grasslands in relation to climate change adaptation.