Conservarea biodiversităţii şi dezvoltare comunitară în Transilvania
Conference: Mountain hay meadows, hot spots of biodiversity and traditional culture, 7-9 June 2010
The Pogány-havas (Pagan Snow-Cap) Association invites you to participate in our conference “Mountain hay meadows, hot spots of biodiversity and traditional culture”, 7-9 June 2010 in the Boros Guesthouse, Borospataka (Wine valley), Lunca de Jos, Hargita County, Transylvania. More information about the project is at http://mountainhaymeadows.euThe aims of the conference are:
- to bring together farmers, biologists, sociologists, economists, policy makers and NGOs for discussions about hay meadow conservation and sustainable management;
- to raise awareness about the conservation and social value of mountain hay meadows;
- to celebrate the International Year of Biodiversity.
The themes of the conference will include:Creation of the agricultural landscapes of Gyimes and Csik; Hay meadows and their biodiversity; Hay meadow management in practice; Hill farming in a protected landscape, the Convention on Biological Diversity, Local attitudes to meadows: results from social surveys; Putting a value on traditional farming; Local perspective on sustainable rural development; Quality milk production; Adding value to meadow products through food and tourism.
Details and registration form are at http://mountainhaymeadows.eu/conference.php
Project: Mountain hay meadows, hot spots of biodiversity and traditional culture
The meadows of Transylvania are some of the most species-rich grasslands of Europe. Amongst them, the hay meadows found in the hills and mountains of Eastern Transylvania are outstanding in terms of biodiversity, landscape beauty and the living rural communities that created and manage them.
Our project aims to help and record the sustainable use of hay meadows and thus to maintain high biodiversity, important ecosystem services and healthy local communities in two adjacent but very distinct landscapes of the Eastern Carpathians.
The project runs from September 2009 till February 2011, it is implemented by the Pogány-havas (Pagan Snowcap) Association and is funded by the UNDP GEF Small Grants Programme, the Barbara Knowles Fund, the European Commission (DG Environment) and donations. Partners of the project are Sapientia University, Hargita County Council, the Environmental Protection Agency of Hargita County, the European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism, and Fundatia ADEPT.
01.03.2010
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Prince of Wales visit to Saschiz on 23 May 2009
In 2008 and 2009, His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales visited the village of Saschiz, in south-east Transylvania, to meet local producers. In 2009 he opened a model food processing unit.
Known as a “food barn”, this simple conversion of a farm courtyard barn will enable small-scale producers in the area to sell their traditional recipes more widely, while meeting the safety and hygiene regulations set out by the EU.
Funded by Fundatia ADEPT and working closely with the local community of Saschiz, the food barn is a first of its kind and has been given official approval by the National Food Safety Authority (ANSVSA) to be used in the production of local products for retail sales in Romania and abroad. The flexible set-up of the food barn welcomes both individual and group producers for a variety of products.
The food barn is the result of the combined wish of local communities, the Romanian Government and the European Commission to preserve local and traditional foods, providing an economic future to the small-scale farming communities that make them and thus protecting the landscape in which they live. Fundatia ADEPT hopes that other communities will be encouraged to replicate this model.
After unveiling a plaque to commemorate the event, His Royal Highness emphasised the need to ensure the survival of Romania’s remarkable rural culture and civilization, drawing reference to how Transylvania combines an extremely rich wildlife with natural and high quality food made by local producers. The Prince of Wales stressed the importance to value and protect these low-energy agricultural systems as they are a practical response to the global economic and environmental crisis.
View film of speech given by HRH The Prince of Wales at Saschiz.
