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Pegasus

PEGASUS is a European research project aiming to develop innovative approaches and new ways of thinking about the way farmland and forests are managed in order to stimulate a long-lasting improvement in the provision of public goods and ecosystem services from agricultural and forest land in the EU.

Project objectives

EU’s agricultural and forestry land provides a wide range of public goods and ecosystem services on which society depends, yet land use decisions and society often under-value these. PEGASUS will develop innovative and practical ways of making public goods and ecosystem services concepts accessible and operational: it will identify how, where and when cost-effective mechanisms and tools for policy, business and practice can most effectively be applied to increase the sustainability of primary production.

Recognising that the appreciation of public goods and ecosystem services is context-dependent,
PEGASUS uses social-ecological systems as an analytical framework to explore systemic inter-dependencies among natural, social and economic processes. It will adopt participatory action research with public and private actors and stakeholders to better understand the range of policy and practical challenges in different case study contexts (localities, sectors, management systems, etc.).

Throughout the project, we want to encourage a wide range of stakeholders – land managers, rural stakeholders and policy makers at local, regional, national and EU level – to get involved and share their ideas. An EU-level spatially explicit assessment of causalities between socio-political and institutional drivers, different land management systems and multiple delivery of public goods and ecosystem services will be complemented by fine-grained analysis within the case studies, and comparative meta-analysis will be applied to develop an operational framework for mapping, valorising and determining what public goods and ecosystem services provision is needed and feasible within particular territories and sectors. New data-sets, transferable methods and tools that are fit-for-purpose and sensitive to the plurality of decision-making contexts will be generated.

By improving recognition of the social and economic value of public goods and ecosystem services, PEGASUS will promote improved and innovative approaches to their provision by businesses and communities, and highlight specific policy improvements to secure their delivery also in the longer term. The project will provide specific advances in CAP, forestry and other relevant policies, underpinned by strong scientific evidence.

 

Project impacts

An EU-level analysis of socio-political and institutional drivers, different land management systems and multiple delivery of public goods and ecosystem services was complemented by case studies as well as a mapping exercise to determine what public goods and ecosystem services provision are needed and feasible within particular territories and sectors. New data-sets, transferable methods and tools that are fit-for-purpose and sensitive to the plurality of decision-making contexts were generated.

By improving recognition of the social and economic value of public goods and ecosystem services, PEGASUS promoted improved and innovative approaches to their provision by businesses and communities, and highlighted specific policy improvements to secure their delivery also in the longer term. The project provided specific advances in CAP, forestry and other relevant policies, underpinned by strong scientific evidence.

Key messages from the project

Using the evidence gathered over 3 years of research, this article presents a summary of the key findings, messages and recommendations about ways to enhance the provision of environmental and social benefits by EU agriculture and forestry in the future.

Policy briefing

 

Case studies – Factsheets

A series of factsheets has been realsed by the PEGASUS partners to present the issues faced in ensuring the effective provision of environmental and social benefits in different contexts (different ‘social-ecological systems’), by local stakeholders.

The case studies dealing more particularly with mountainous areas are:

Euromontana’s interview on PEGASUS

Euromontana was given the opportunity to explain why it was important for us to participate in PEGASUS and how the project results can contribute increase the provision of environmental and social services from mountain areas.

Read the article in the December 2017 edition of the Rural Connections magazine, published by the European Network for Rural Development (ENRD).

Final Conference

PEGASUS Final Conference took place on 7 February 2018 in Brussels. You can find the key messages of the conference here

Toolkit

Pegasus releases a Toolkit to help stakeholders planning local initiatives to encourage more sustainable farming and forestry. Learning from examples around Europe, the H2020 PEGASUS project has identified a set of common principles and supporting methods to help actors at the local level who wish to enhance the environmental and social benefits provided by farming and forestry.

This PEGASUS ‘toolkit’ is a compendium of advice, guidance and ideas for planning local initiatives or projects to encourage more sustainable farming and forestry. It has been developed to help new and existing initiatives to become stronger and increase their effectiveness and impact.  It does this by drawing together and sharing the experience of 34 varied examples across ten countries in Europe.

Discover the Toolkit  “Working Together to Build a Successful Initiative” here

Partners of the project

14 organisations are cooperating to ensure that the PEGASUS project objectives will be achieved. These organisations are based in 10 different EU countries and represent, for example, academia, research institutes and nature conservation partnerships.

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🔜 Join us in Paris on 12 December to discuss mountain cooperation! 🤝We'll be talking about Euromontana's initiatives for environmental transition, cooperation at European scale to accelerate it, current debates and needs for tomorrow's action 🌱🌄Registration ⤵️ docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScAXXOrPgxXOYo9hJVZZ3kuZehn7crnKqLhmdzVyF6Y9HsUtA/viewformEurêka 21 Mountain Wilderness France Agència de Desenvolupament del Berguedà PETR du Briançonnais des Ecrins du Guillestrois et du QueyrasA l'occasion des 15 ans d'Eurêka 21, nous vous convions à un événement dédié à la #coopération et à la #transition écologique des #territoires !Venez découvrir à quelles conditions la coopération locale, nationale et européenne constituent un levier de la transformation écologique des territoires ! 🔗 Un événement gratuit sur inscription obligatoire : urlz.fr/ongFPlus d'infos : 📍Maison de l'Europe (29 avenue de Villiers, 75017 Paris) 🗓️Le 12 décembre 2023🕒De 14h à 20h30Un grand merci à Fiona Mille (Mountain Wilderness France), Rosa Maria Colomer Oró (Agència de Desenvolupament del Berguedà), Blandine Camus (Euromontana) et Pierre Leroy (PETR du Briançonnais des Ecrins du Guillestrois et du Queyras) pour leur participation ainsi qu'à la Maison de l'Europe de Paris CED pour son accueil !L'équipe d'Eurêka 21 (Séverine Bressaud, Isabella Livertout, Laurent Delcayrou, Cécilia Dumesnil) vous attend pour échanger autour de débats passionnants et partager un verre pour célébrer les 15 ans d’Eurêka 21 ! #Cooperation #Transition #Territoires #Europe #Montagnes ... See MoreSee Less
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Plenty of food for thought to amplify the voice of European mountains at our 2023 General Assembly! 🌄🔸 Inspiring discussions the Rural Vision and climate change🔸 Lots of ideas for our future work on pastoralism and energy🔸 Clear synergies for future mountain projects🔸 Exciting exchanges with our new members Looking forward to our next edition ❗ ... See MoreSee Less
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Packed room for our skills conference today in Brussels 🔛🔸 Opportunities & challenges for skills in mountains in transitions🔸 Initiatives to create & attract talents in our regions🔸 How the EU Rural Vision can support in attracting skills#EuropeanYearOfSkills #Talent4Regions ... See MoreSee Less
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