Public goods from agriculture and forestry

Why does research and innovation on public goods from agriculture and forestry matter?

Agriculture and forestry are unique sectors delivering, alongside commercial products, societal public goods such as biodiversity, water regulation, landscape, erosion control, resilience to floods and climate change mitigation.

The increasing value assigned by society to the environment, culture and heritage of rural areas can be a driver of their sustainable growth.

This has materialised to a certain extent for public goods related to culture and heritage, e.g. tourism based on traditional landscapes or traditional food. However, the situation is less favourable for most environmental public goods.

Farmers and foresters are managing most of the EU land and, depending on practices used, can be sources of a wealth of environmental public goods for the benefit of rural areas and society.

Research activities can help improve the understanding of the complex interactions between primary production systems and ecosystems services. They should support the provision of these public goods and services through the delivery of management solutions, decision-support and monitoring tools and the assessment of their market and non-market value.

Funding opportunities

Horizon Europe

Calls for proposals and funding information related to agriculture, forestry and rural areas.

Horizon 2020

Calls for proposals related to public goods from agriculture and forestry are spread across numerous schemes in Horizon 2020. This page lists them and explains how you can apply.

European agricultural fund for rural development

The rural development policy supports innovation through a range of interventions, including the European innovation partnership for agriculture (EIP-AGRI).