Italy, March 9th, 2021 – Foodnected, a new project designed to promote the transition to sustainable and fair food systems in the Mediterranean region, will be launched on March 10 at a virtual event as part of the international festival Terra Madre Salone del Gusto, project partners Slow Food, Global Footprint Network, Low Impact Fishers of Europe (LIFE), and GOB Menorca announced today.

“After striving for years to stress the importance of education and raise consumers’ awareness of the value of their food and their connection with the people who produce it, we are excited to collaborate with sustainable fishing and farming organisations to progress to a world where all the actors can come together through common initiatives to improve each other’s lives through an essential aspect of what it means to be human: the food we choose to consume to not only feed our bodies, but also nurture our spirits and communities,” said Paula Barbeito, Foodnected Coordinator at Slow Food.

Funded by the MAVA Foundation over a two-year period, Foodnected is about “Connecting people and nature around local, fair and sustainable food systems.”

“Our foundation supports sustainability initiatives that protect nature and support people’s livelihoods. The way we consume and produce food impacts our environment. We believe that short-chain food systems grounded in local traditions hold a great potential to maintain and preserve  biodiversity — both cultivated and wild,” said Julien Semelin from MAVA Foundation.

Foodnected is driven by the vision of bringing producers and consumers together through a Community of Practice grounded in shared values. By shortening the distance between producers and consumers and developing an ethical code of environmental and social values for the way food is produced and consumed, the project will address shortcomings in the prevailing market system and reverse the unfair situation faced by small-scale producers.

“Gaining fair access to resources and markets is a fundamental struggle for small-scale low-impact fishers who make up the majority of the European fleet. We believe that working together with others is essential to achieving a positive and meaningful change in our food systems. To be viable, fishers must be rewarded for the value they add through their good practices. On the other hand, consumers need to be able to easily identify sustainable, healthy and fair products, and to know their story, so they can value and select them,” said LIFE Executive Secretary Brian O’Riordan.

Ultimately, Foodnected intends to facilitate the emergence of short-chain food systems that work for nature and people – both consumers and the small-scale producers who depend on them for their livelihood.

The project is scheduled to unfold in three phases. First, it will clarify an approach to fair and sustainable food systems through nurturing the development of a Community of Practice composed of actors along the value chain.

“All of us – as citizens, producers and consumers – can play a central role in the transition towards sustainable food systems. But making the right choices depends on the possibility to rely on scientifically-sound information. For this reason, relying on a science-based approach to identify pertinent practices is going to be a strong aspect of this project. By applying Ecological Footprint accounting, we will be able to quantitatively monitor the impact of such practices,” said Alessandro Galli, senior scientist and the Mediterranean-MENA Program Director at Global Footprint Network.

Second, pilot initiatives will be implemented to develop market solutions for fair and sustainable food production and consumption at local level, especially in the Balearic Islands (Spain).

“The work we’ve been developing through our local network of farmers is set to enjoy a wider impact thanks to this collaborative project. We’re excited to be actors and to witness firsthand how we can accelerate change at home and inspire other communities,” said GOB Menorca’s Programme Director Miquel Camps.

Finally, the project aims to share lessons at a regional level. Results from the first two phases will be disseminated through advocacy work at national and wider regional – Mediterranean (GFCM) and EU – levels, especially within the framework of the EU Farm to Fork Strategy and in the context of the FAO International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture (in 2022).

Foodnected launch event is to take place on Wednesday, March 10 at 2:00 pm CET. Anyone interested in learning more about the project is invited to attend. Information about event details and access can be found here.

Additional Resources

Press Release in Italian, French and Spanish

About Slow Food

Slow Food is a global network of local communities founded in 1989 to prevent the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions and counteract the rise of fast-food culture. Since its founding, Slow Food has grown into a global movement involving millions of people in over 160 countries, working to ensure that everyone has access to good, clean and fair food. www.slowfood.com

Media contact: Alessia Pautasso (Italy) +39 342 864 1029 ~ a.pautasso@slowfood.it

About LIFE

The Low Impact Fishers of Europe (LIFE) is an organisation of organisations of small-scale fishers around Europe. LIFE represents the interests of 31 organisations in 15 EU Member States associating around 10,000 small-scale fishers across all European sea basins from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Its mission is to commit small-scale fishers (SSF) to fishing in a low-impact manner, to transform low-impact SSF into an attractive and economically viable profession, which sustains fish stocks and protects the marine environment, and contributes to prosperous coastal communities. www.lifeplatform.eu

Media contact: Brian O’Riordan, Executive Secretary, deputy@lifeplatform.eu, +32 486368855

About Global Footprint Network

Global Footprint Network is an international sustainability organization that is helping the world live within the Earth’s means and respond to climate change. Since 2003 we’ve engaged with more than 60 countries, 40 cities, and 70 global partners to deliver scientific insights that have driven high-impact policy and investment decisions. Together, we’re creating a future where all of us can thrive within the limits of our one planet. www.footprintnetwork.org

Media contact: Laetitia Mailhes (France) +33 650 979 012 ~ laetitia.mailhes@footprintnetwork.org

About GOB Menorca

GOB Menorca is a non-profit organisation established in 1977. Its basic objective is to help achieve a truly sustainable economy by making human activities compatible with the preservation of the environment. GOB Menorca has several lines of work: land protection, marine conservation, recovery of wild fauna, promotion of sustainable gardening, environmental education, and the Agricultural Stewardship Programme (called Custòdia Agrària).

The Agricultural Stewardship Programme, which is based on the signing of an “Agreement on Sustainable Agrarian Practices”, aims to create, encourage and channel social alliances that, together with public initiatives, can achieve the maintenance and recovery of the local agricultural sector, while guaranteeing the preservation of the landscape and its associated biodiversity. GOB is considered an entity of Public Utility and has received numerous awards and recognitions from both public administrations and private companies. It counts with over 1.400 members and is considered a main influencing actor in the island.

Media contact: Jara Febrer (Spain) +34 971350762 – jfebrer@gobmenorca.com

About the MAVA Foundation

MAVA was born from the passion and vision of its founder, Luc Hoffmann, an extraordinary naturalist who believed fiercely in protecting the planet’s wild splendor.

The MAVA Foundation conserves biodiversity for the benefit of people and nature by financing, mobilizing and strengthening its partners and the conservation community. MAVA also accompanies them on their conservation journey, helping them develop the skills they need and strengthening their ability to deliver. mava-foundation.org/

Media Contact: Julien Semelin, julien.semelin@fondationmava.org

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The side-event will be held on Tuesday 3rd of December, 18h-19h, at Sala Sirena, Castel dell’Ovo in Naples and will spotlight recent outcomes, tools, and lessons learned around the topic of Mediterranean maritime and coastal sustainable tourism.

This event will share novel approaches and lessons related to sustainable blue tourism and its role in supporting biodiversity conservation and territorial development around the Mediterranean coast. It will also highlight recent opportunities and gaps identified in governance, policy-making, impact monitoring and management, while sharing innovative perspectives on how recent achievements can be capitalized and scaled to broader Mediterranean context in the framework of the Barcelona Convention and other multilateral or voluntary environmental agreements and commitments at global, regional, national or local scale.

Alessandro Galli, Ph.D, Global Footprint Network Director of Mediterranean and MENA Regions, will address the Ecological Footprint and ecotourism. The Ecotourism Footprint Calculator is now available to measure the Ecological Footprint of ecotourism itineraries and create a proven sustainable experience.

Register for the side-event here.

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For all Mediterranean countries, we will illustrate the share of fish consumption as a portion of the overall Ecological Footprint. Additionally, we will compare the contribution of calories from fish in the country’s diet to their Ecological Footprint (we call this “fish Footprint intensity”). For three pilot sites in Croatia, Turkey, and Italy, we will identify the most commonly consumed fish species and create groups of alternative fish species that are lower on the food web and are currently caught by small-scale fisheries. Global Footprint Network’s goal is to compare the potential Footprint reduction achievable from encouraging consumers to diversify the fish they eat and reduced overall fish consumption.

Fish Footprint Calculations

Data collected from fisherman at the pilot sites for this project will improve how Global Footprint Network calculates the Ecological Footprint of fisheries. Rather than focusing on just the quantity of fish caught, we will incorporate a variety of factors that affect the Ecological Footprint, such as labor, boat size, gear type, and unintended species caught.

The findings of this project will be available through a new Fish Footprint Calculator that will be linked to Global Footprint Network’s current Ecological Footprint Calculator. In doing so, we hope to spread the message that the Fishing Ecological Footprint is one of both individual and community responsibility. The intent is to empower individuals to act together to impact the future of their region and livelihoods in a way that is scientifically measurable. Individuals will be able to assess how their behavior shapes community impact, and how communities then shape the regional and global Ecological Footprint. Along with our partners in the region, we will also use this data to support the broader MAVA strategy through the integration of our data into partner-led activities that help retailers, restaurants, tourists, and residents understand their contribution to overfishing and to influence their purchasing, distribution, and consumption behaviors.

This is a joint project with WWF and the MAVA Foundation.

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The EU-funded project, called DestiMED, brings together a network of 13 protected areas in six Mediterranean countries to collectively develop, manage, and promote ecotourism. The first of seven pilot tests taking place this fall for the project will launch on Sept. 25. As part of the pilot tests, local teams have created new ecotourism packages, and will be welcoming a group of industry experts who will evaluate and provide feedback on the quality and market viability of the packages.

With the help of the experts, the local teams also will help collect data for an innovative approach to measuring and reducing the environmental impact of tourism on the natural resources that sustain protected area communities. This new tool is based on the Ecological Footprint framework.

“The project gives us with the opportunity to test a novel application of the Ecological Footprint,” says Alessandro Galli, Global Footprint Network’s director of the Mediterranean and MENA regions. “We hope to prove with numbers that ecotourism really has a lower pressure on the planet.”

DestiMED builds on the success of a previous project called the MEET Network (Mediterranean Experience of Ecotourism). MEET has now been established as a non-profit Destination Management Organization, and is focused on further developing and promoting a high-quality portfolio of protected area ecotourism experiences in the region.

“Our aim is to interact constructively with our natural resources and to broadcast our legacy positively, while protecting the River Ebre as an icon of our lands,” said Josep Aragonés, Terres de l’Ebre Biosphere Reserve Director. “For this reason, projects like DestiMED that advocate sustainable tourism are fully aligned with our objectives as a protected area.”

The seven protected areas participating in the fall tests are:

Colline Metallifere Tuscan Mining Park (Italy)
Kornati National Park (Croatia)
Menorca Biosphere Reserve (Spain)
Nature Park Lastovo Islands (Croatia)
Samaria National Park, Crete (Greece)
Terres De L´Ebre Biosphere Reserve (Spain)
Torre del Cerrano Marine Park (Italy)

Additional Resources

IUCN DestiMed Website
Global Footprint Network Mediterranean Initiative
Report: How can Mediterranean societies thrive in an era of decreasing resources?

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The objective was to demonstrate that a top-down Footprint city analysis can effectively analyze, in a consistent and comparable manner, the resource demand of cities in a region, and shed light on these cities’ contribution to the regional ecological deficit.

With the world population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, with an estimated 70% living in urban areas (up from 46% in 2015), urbanization is among the major global challenges of the next decades. In this context, planning and resource management in cities represents a significant opportunity to favor a sustainability transition around the world. Creating effective policies, however, requires meaningful urban metrics based on a quantitative understanding of cities’ resource use.

Published findings in Environmental Science and Policy paint a detailed landscape of natural resource challenges and opportunities for urban centers in the Mediterranean region. With food and transportation identified as the largest factors of the Ecological Footprint, local governments now can use this data to craft their sustainable development strategies.

The top-down approach allowed for consistently tracking the Ecological Footprint of these coastal cities. Valletta, Athens, and Genoa are the cities with the highest per capita Ecological Footprint, ranging between 5.3 and 4.8 global hectares (gha) per person respectively; Tirana, Alexandria, and Antalya have the lowest Ecological Footprint, ranging between 2.1 and 2.7 gha per capita.
Most cities’ Footprints per person exceed that of their countries, with the exception of Thessaloniki, Tel Aviv, Venice, Palermo, and Naples.

Differences among cities’ Ecological Footprint values are largely driven by socio-economic factors, such as disposable income, infrastructure, and cultural habits, the article’s co-authors state.

The article also includes the Footprint results of nearly 40 cities around the world calculated since 1996, including Barcelona, London, Manila, Oslo, San Francisco, and Shanghai. However, these calculations have used different approaches, surveys, and methods, rendering comparability among studies challenging.

Interestingly, findings reveal the existence of a “double dynamic” taking place in cities. On one hand, cities concentrate investment in, and offer more access to, energy-saving modes of consumption (largely, because of institutional density and economies of scale), thus contributing to smaller per capita Footprints, all other things being equal. On the other hand, cities have also been functioning in recent history as a “social elevator,” enabling residents to earn higher pay, thereby typically also increasing their consumption level.

Better understanding the trade-off between these two dynamics is a major piece of the puzzle towards creating and maintaining human development that can thrive within the planet’s environmental constraints. Identifying high leverage solutions that can reduce the global urban Footprint while meeting human needs for development must become a priority.

The authors maintain that their analysis could serve as the basis for the development of a worldwide consistent system of city Footprint assessments. This system could constitute a tool for initial benchmarking of cities’ resource demand and identification of the key components behind such demand. Understanding hotspots and leverage points for planners and administrators will help mitigate demand on nature.

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