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FRAMEwork has released a sustainability assessment tool that evaluates farms across environmental, economic and social dimensions As the European Union shifts agricultural priorities towards sustainable food production and farmland biodiversity restoration, farmers and policymakers face a critical question: how can we reliably assess and compare the sustainability of farming systems? FRAMEwork has released a comprehensive sustainability assessment tool that evaluates farms across environmental, economic, and social dimensions. The approach differs fundamentally from traditional top-down metrics imposed by policymakers. Rather than imposing predetermined indicators, the tool was co-developed with farmers, facilitators, and scientists, incorporating over 30 sustainability indicators spanning land use, pesticide application, water quality, energy, profitability, worker wellbeing, and stakeholder relations. How Does the Assessment Tool Work? The FRAMEwork Sustainable Assessment Tool operates through a practical two-part system: a farmer-friendly questionnaire coupled with an automated calculation spreadsheet that handles complex calculations. Farmers provide information about their farming business over a 12-month period, including crop types, hectares of land, income, subsidies, and pesticide use. The spreadsheet automatically calculates indicators across five sections: agricultural produce, income and capital, resource usage, farming practices, and business policies. Crucially, each indicator is converted into a four-level statement system using colour coding: red, amber, green, and dark green. This visual approach makes results intuitive and solutions-focused. Farmers can self-assess their sustainability, track progress over time, and identify areas where sustainability is declining or improving. What Project Evidence was Used? Testing across the English Farmer Cluster revealed significant results. Of 23 overarching sustainability indicators examined, 11 were found to be significantly above or below their control values, with 8 additional indicators showing meaningful links to biodiversity outcomes. Specifically, farmers with higher sustainability scores demonstrated improvements in corporate ethics, stakeholder dialogue, water quality management, soil health, and reduced chemical inputs. Higher fertiliser use efficiency (£36.24 fertiliser per tonne of produce) and reduced pesticide spray rounds (averaging 5.29 spray rounds per crop per year) were associated with improved sustainability. This finding suggests that more efficient resource use correlates with improved sustainability performance. The tool was subsequently tested and refined across English, Austrian, Scottish, and Czech Farmer Clusters, with feedback ensuring broader applicability across diverse farming systems, from arable to mixed to pastoral operations. The Sustainable Assessment Tool exemplifies FRAMEwork's commitment to bridging the gap between scientific knowledge and farmer practice. Rather than assuming a single 'best' approach, the tool recognises that sustainability is multidimensional and context-dependent. It provides clear, actionable feedback that farmers can use to improve their operations whilst generating evidence that informs policy at regional and national levels. The collaborative development process demonstrates that practical, farmer-centred assessment tools can capture the complexity of real farming systems whilst remaining accessible to non-technical users. Access the full tool and guidance here: https://zenodo.org/records/17898930. Download training resources and explore related project publications at https://www.framework-biodiversity.eu/publications.

Project officially launches YouTube Channel to support legacy dissemination Throughout H2020 FRAMEwork, video has played a central role in connecting our project's actors and audiences across Europe - from short documentaries filmed on farms to expert-led webinars on biodiversity policy and practice. For most of the project's lifetime, these videos were hosted via Taskscape's Vimeo, embedded across the project website and knowledge hub, Recodo, and played at project events and via social media. They received thousands of views and helped foster a sense of a broader European farmer cluster movement, providing entry points for discussion on shared ecological challenges. As part of the project's legacy offer, Taskscape has launched Growing Biodiversity - a dedicated YouTube channel designed to keep this media content freely available and accessible to the widest possible audience. Although the project's media strategy was not deliberately optimised for YouTube, the channel has performed well since its soft launch on 1 May 2025, attracting over 20,000 views and more than 500 subscribers by the end of 2025. While modest, the project is pleased that this sits well above averages for similar projects of this scale. YouTube Shorts have proven particularly effective, offering quick snapshots of activity and opinions across the project, while longer webinar recordings have drawn viewers looking for deeper engagement with the science and policy behind biodiversity-sensitive farming. What Can I Find on the Channel? Beyond YouTube shorts, the channel is organised into five playlists, each offering a different window into the project's work. On the Ground features short documentaries in farmer clusters across Europe, showing how biodiversity measures, community engagement and scientific monitoring help farmers build resilient ecosystems. Video Abstracts makes academic research accessible, covering topics from biological pest control and habitat connectivity to biodiversity recovery and climate adaptation through nature-based solutions. Big-Picture Thinking brings together expert-led webinars exploring the intersection of agricultural policy and biodiversity — from EU Common Agricultural Policy reform and the UK's Environmental Land Management schemes to green finance, natural capital markets and decision tools. Tools for Progress introduces the digital resources available on Recodo, including the FRAMEwork Data Hub, FEAST for spatial mapping and landscape analysis, and FRAMEtest for evaluating farm-level biodiversity measures in transition contexts. Behind the Scenes documents milestones in the project, from our first in-person meeting in Luxembourg to key knowledge exchange visits in Spain and England. You can explore the playlists above in the media section of the FRAMEwork website, or access the full channel Growing Biodiversity on YouTube. Whether you're a researcher, a farmer, a policy maker, or simply interested in the future of sustainable land management there's something there for you!

Project publishes framework categorising private incentive mechanisms designed to support biodiversity-friendly agriculture across Europe Beyond government schemes, farmers across Europe face a rapidly expanding landscape of private incentive mechanisms specifically designed to promote biodiversity-friendly agriculture. FRAMEwork has developed a comprehensive framework for understanding and categorising these diverse mechanisms and has conducted extensive research assessing how they interact with farmer behaviour and cluster-level conservation goals. The D6.3 report presents a systematic categorisation of private incentive schemes relevant to contemporary European agriculture. These mechanisms range considerably in scope and design. What Forms do Private Incentives Take? Market-based mechanisms such as premium prices for biodiversity-friendly products allow consumers to support environmental outcomes directly through purchasing decisions. Supply chain certification schemes set environmental standards across production chains, creating quality assurance mechanisms that appeal to environmentally conscious retailers and consumers. Labels and ecolabels allow producers to signal environmental commitment to consumers, commanding price premiums that reflect added environmental value of products. Private retail standards set environmental requirements for suppliers wishing to stock products on supermarket shelves, creating both opportunities and barriers to participation. Direct marketing strategies enable farmers to capture additional value by selling directly to environmentally conscious consumers through farm shops, farmers' markets and subscription schemes. Privately funded payments from conservation organisations or companies seeking environmental offsets provide direct financial support completely independent of government programmes and policy changes. The heterogeneity of these schemes creates both opportunities for farmers to diversify income streams and complex challenges for coordination across multiple initiatives operating simultaneously. How to Coordinate Private and Public Incentives? Understanding private incentive mechanisms is increasingly important as farmers diversify income sources and as major companies integrate environmental commitments into procurement policies and corporate social responsibility programmes. Private schemes often complement public programmes effectively and can drive significant innovation in practice design, testing approaches that governments may later adopt at scale. However, they also create notable coordination challenges, particularly when multiple schemes operate simultaneously with potentially conflicting environmental requirements. These schemes may not target conservation priorities most effectively from a landscape perspective, potentially missing valuable opportunities for landscape-scale biodiversity gains where conservation action is ecologically most important. FRAMEwork's research explores how private and public incentives can work together more effectively within clusters to enhance landscape-scale biodiversity outcomes and farmer engagement. By understanding the complex interaction between these mechanisms, policymakers and practitioners can design more coherent incentive systems that strategically leverage the strengths of both private and public approaches. Cluster-based approaches offer particular opportunities for coordinating diverse incentive sources, reducing administrative burden for participating farmers, and targeting them strategically towards shared conservation objectives that transcend individual farm boundaries. Clusters provide natural forums where farmers can share information about incentive opportunities and discuss their experiences with different schemes. Access the full framework and findings at https://zenodo.org/records/7115617 or explore more FRAMEwork resources at https://www.framework-biodiversity.eu/publications.

Fundación Artemisan is a private Spanish non-profit aiming to conserve wildlife for the benefit of biodiversity and our countryside. < Back ARTEMISAN Foundation Fundación Artemisan is a private Spanish non-profit aiming to conserve wildlife for the benefit of biodiversity and our countryside. Created in 2017, FA working in a wide range of topics through research & innovation, communication and legal defence. FA supported by 160 donors and 400 members from Spain and abroad and 85% of their budget is private. Among their patrons are the Spanish Hunters’ Federation, the Association of Landowners, the Game meat producers’ association and other groups and associations related to game management andconservation. FA aims to conserve game and other wildlife through applied science and is currently working on declining species (including non-game ones), habitat and predator management, sustainable use of natural resources and also social and economic factors. FA also works to disseminate all results to the public, one of the key points for the organization IN FRAMEWORK Artemisan will work in close collaboration with GCT and also lead a study in Spain. Artemisan will lead the creation of one FC in Spain. It will be an Orchard system, a classic landscape dominated by olive groves, as the cultivation of olive trees is one of the most important within the Mediterranean Basin. At the moment, several farmers are interested to implement agri-environmental measures and the land also managed for wild game and other species. FA aims to make the most of the current farmers’ interest on the benefits of habitat management for game, protected species and yields. Our challenge is to develop successfully habitat improvements adapted to the different scenarios, which are also suffering from climate change and specifically from extended drought periods and soil erosion. There is also the risk of land abandonment at the cluster, one of the main problems for farming in Spain. FA is confident that other NGOs and the farmers’ unions will collaborate as third parties, improving the social aspects of the clusters. Their experience in previous project will ensure this. Previous Next

Scandinavian inter-disciplinary org aimed at developing and applying natural and social science to real- world environment and development challenges. < Back Nordic Agency For Development and Ecology Scandinavian inter-disciplinary org aimed at developing and applying natural and social science to real- world environment and development challenges. NORDECO develops tools and methods, carries out research, connects persons and institutions, builds capacity, and supports interventions on the ground. Founded in 1991, NORDECO has the declared goal of supporting local, innovative conservation and development initiatives. Globally, NORDECO has spearheaded the development of bottom-up approaches to natural resource monitoring and management, where local people or local government staff are directly involved in data collection and interpretation, and where monitoring is linked to the decisions of local people, using methods that are simple, cheap and require few resources. Such approaches can help generate transparency, accountability and local ownership in sustainable natural resource management initiatives. IN FRAMEWORK NORDECO will lead on citizen science monitoring with the wider public. In addition, NORDECO will contribute to stakeholder dialogue and quality assurance. NORDECOs background in developing bottom-up approaches to citizen science and natural resource monitoring and management in rural communities matches these tasks very well. Previous Next

The main public institute researching for Agriculture and Environment in France. < Back French National Agricultural Institute The main public institute researching for Agriculture and Environment in France. Initially founded 70 years ago, INRAE is France's new National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment, created on January 1, 2020, It was formed by the merger of INRA, the National Institute for Agricultural Research, and IRSTEA, the National Research Institute of Science and Technology for the Environment and Agriculture. IN FRAMEWORK INRAE has experience in organizing and facilitating Farmer Clusters in France. INRA will operate one of the pilot Farmer Clusters in apple and pear orchards. It will conduct workshop in collaboration with GRAB involving farmers and agricultural advisers from the GIEE to enhance and coordinate the implementation of agroecological infrastructures, the monitoring and identification of farmland biodiversity by farmers, and to explore farmer sensitivity to biodiversity all along the project. INRA will contribute through monitoring and analysis of farmland biodiversity according to farmer agricultural practices and agroecological landscape context to precise the ecological mechanisms impacting natural pest control. Two research units at Avignon will be involved in the FRAMEwork project ‘Plants and cropping Systems in Horticulture’ , which conducts ecophysiological and agroecological approaches to enhance the quality of fresh fruits and vegetables and the development of environment friendly cropping systems in the Mediterranean area, and ‘Eco-development’, which studies conditions for a transition of agriculture and rural territories towards a sustainable ecologisation of agricultural activities. Previous Next