All over Europe, grasslands with high nature value have been created and maintained by centuries of low-intensity grazing and hay mowing. These grasslands are now among the most threatened landscapes. Either because the kind of farming that nurtured them is no longer socially and economically viable and the land is abandoned, to gradually become scrub and woodland. Or because farmers and landowners are switching to more intensive uses of grassland or changing pastures and meadows to arable land, forest plantations, building lots…

 

The TRINET initiative focuses on this link between grassland which has landscape and biodiversity value, and the social and economic context in which the farmers using the grassland have to operate.

 

Its overall goal is to promote the preservation and restoration of grassland with a high nature value, especially by means of ensuring and improving the economic viability of using these grasslands in ways compatible with their ecology. A key concept here is 'multifunctional farming', in which farming produces, at the same time, goods for sale on the market and immaterial outputs like biodiversity, attractive landscapes, clean water…


To support this, TRINET's central strategy consists of building meaningful and mutually supportive partnerships between farmers, conservation professionals and any other stakeholders.

 

 

TRINET was launched by two meetings (2006-2007) which assembled various initiatives from across Europe where multifunctional grassland-based farming is already working in favour of nature, or where it is being developed and encouraged.

 

 

 

DBU´s website

Thanks to funding from a German foundation, Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt DBU, TRINET was in 2009 able to start scoping and supporting or starting up concrete projects for economically viable preservation and improvement of grasslands in the Danube nations (Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria) and in the north-eastern sector of Europe (Baltic States). The DBU support also allowed TRINET to begin exchange of experience and networking: between grassland initiatives from these countries, and with existing initiatives from e.g. Austria, Belgium, Finland and Germany. (In the DBU website, clicking the menu option 'International' gives a choice between English, Bulgarian, Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish and Romanian.)

A first impression is that these initiatives often have a dual structure, consisting of conservationists and local farmers who are working together. Such dual conservation-farming platforms are valuable partnerships, where conservationists and farmer-stakeholders explore the implications of working for nature and try to find mutually satisfactory, sustainable solutions.