What Can Policymakers Learn from Our Farmer Clusters?

Project publishes Cluster-level policy briefs documenting farmer-led biodiversity management across Europe. Here is what they offer and why they matter!

FRAMEwork has published ten policy briefs, each documenting a different farmer cluster operating within the project. The briefs cover 11 clusters across 9 European countries: Austria (2 clusters), the Czech Republic, England, Estonia, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Spain. Scotland’s Buchan cluster is covered within the English farmland brief at UK level rather than as a standalone document. Together, the collection offers a cross-European evidence base for anyone assessing whether the farmer cluster model can deliver landscape-scale biodiversity outcomes under real farming conditions.

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What do the Briefs Cover?

Each brief follows a similar structure: the regional farming context, the biodiversity measures implemented or maintained, monitoring results, community engagement activities, and policy recommendations specific to that cluster’s regional and national setting. They are practical documents aimed at policymakers, advisors and farming organisations rather than academic audiences. The briefs range across farming systems — arable, pastoral, orchard and olive cultivation — and across scales from 50-hectare traditional holdings to clusters coordinating over 3,000 hectares.

What Will Readers Learn?

The collection is most useful read comparatively. Each brief individually explains aspects that worked and didn’t across specific regions. Readers will see which types of biodiversity measures were adopted across the different landscapes and farming systems. They’ll find explanations of how monitoring results varied by intervention type and regional context, and how community engagement formats were adapted to local conditions. The briefs also document where existing policy mechanisms supported cluster development, where they currently fall short, and what alternative funding or governance structures clusters explored in response.

What are Some Key Takeaways?

Three findings recur across the collection. The first is that long-term facilitation of at least 5 years is a precondition for building the trust that enables collective action. Incentive structures that reward group outcomes rather than individual compliance produce stronger participation and more durable results. And monitoring embedded from the start of a cluster’s life generates the evidence base needed for adaptive management and to make the case for sustained funding. Where any of these elements are missing, clusters will struggle regardless of how favourable other aspects are.

Explore the briefs:

All ten policy briefs are available in our Zenodo Community: Cranborne Chase, England • Burgenland, Austria • Mostviertel, Austria • Velké Hostěrádky, Czech Republic • Kanepi Kihilund, Estonia • Basse-Durance, France (in French) • Val Graziosa, Italy • Born, Luxembourg • Zeeasterweg, Netherlands • Cazadores de Aguilar, Spain.

For the fuller story behind these briefs, the Farmer Clusters Narrative Magazine documents the experiences and lessons from all eleven clusters and Cluster participants also share their stories in their own words on our Substack. Browse related publications at framework-biodiversity.eu/publications, or explore the Resource Finder on our Info Hub for more.