Innovation Group AUFWERTEN

Funding:

German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Funding program “Innovation Groups for Sustainable Land Management”, Projektträger Jülich, Grant number: FKZ: 033L129

Aim of the Project:

The goal of the Innovation Group AUFWERTEN is to make a significant contribution to more sustainable land use in Germany. Agricultural land should, through the combined cultivation of trees and cash crops (agroforestry systems or alley-cropping) be enhanced ecologically and socio-economically. At the same time, added value for regions such as within the bioenergy sector is to be strengthened. The holistic research approach of AUFWERTEN includes the areas of nature- and environmental protection, landscape design, engineering, logistics, marketing, economics, governance and participation. The focus will lie not solely on newly established agroforestry systems, but also on opportunities for integration and development of existing landscape components such as windbreaks. The research focuses on an area in the eastern part of Germany within three municipalities in the Brandenburg district Elbe-Elster. Based on the findings from the project, an action plan to implement agroforestry systems for practitioners in agriculture and planning is to be developed.

Against this background, the research work includes the following main areas of investigation:

• Identification of potentially suitable arable land for the establishment of agroforestry systems
• Site-specific ecological, economic and landscape design evaluation of agroforestry forms of use
• Increasing the yield stability of arable crops, also against the background of a predicted increase in weather disturbances and dry periods
• Integration of existing agroforestry components into agronomic decision-making processes
• Evaluation of technical and logistical options for efficient management of agroforestry systems
• Strengthening a sustainable and regionally oriented use of bioenergy
• Establishment of new and further development of existing farm and community value chains based on agroforestry utilization concepts
• Creation of agroforestry-related marketing and business models as a basis for long-term strengthening of rural areas
• Analysis of social and political control possibilities regarding the promotion of agroforestry forms of use
• Information and consulting of land users and land owners on chances and risks of agroforestry management concepts
• Initiation of a competence center for agroforestry

Results (in German):

• Summary article on the project AUFWERTEN
• Innovation Concept
• Roadmap
• Detailed expert leaflets

Project partners:

• Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) – Chair of Soil Protection and Recultivation
• Technical University of Munich – Chair for Strategic Landscape Planning and Management – TUM School of Life Sciences
• Leibnitz Institute of Agricultural Engineering Potsdam-Bornim e.V. (ATB)
• Biomasse Schraden e.V.
• Thomas Domin Farm
• Kleine Elster Authority
• Brandenburg Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU)
• BALSA – Office for Applied Landscape Ecology and Scenario Analysis
• Fraunhofer IAO – Competence Center Innovation Management
• Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) e.V. – Institute for Socioeconomics
• Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences (HSZG) – Power Plant and Energy Technology
• University of Bayreuth – Chair of Innovation and Dialogue Marketing
• inter 3 GmbH – Institute for Resource Management
• Atelier VorSicht GmbH

For further information please contact Rico Hübner