Within the Swiss-Romanian Cooperation Programme, Partnership and Expert Fund, Partnership Block Grant, 1st call for proposals, the Mihai Eminescu Trust and SAVE Foundation form a partnership of the project proposal “Sustainable Agriculture in Remote Areas of Romania: Conservation and Adding Value to Fruit Varieties”.
The proposed project has a pilot character, targeting the rural community of the village Mălâncrav and the Laslea Commune that it is part of, and will be implemented under the umbrella of the “Whole Village Project” developed by the Mihai Eminescu Trust. The integrated approach of the proposed project tackling in situ conservation of fruit varieties, active involvement and education of local communities, combined with awareness raising activities, will lead to a strengthening of the civil society: rural life and work will have a more sustainable basis, through the knowledge and utilisation of traditional heritage.
In line with recent international negotiations in Nagoya under the Convention for Biological Diversity, participation of local stakeholders in the conservation process is of paramount importance, generating also sustainable development of rural communities. The project targets local farmers and experts, the direct beneficiaries will be the inhabitants of the Laslea commune, which includes the village Mălâncrav and 4 other villages. This targeted population includes the 4 local ethnic groups: Romanians, Roma, Saxons and Hungarians. These are disadvantaged populations, as they inhabit a remote area with poor access to education, professional qualification and jobs, living mainly from subsistence agriculture, state aid and seasonal jobs in cities or abroad. As the MET is active in 27 other rural communities from Transylvania which are similar to Laslea commune, the respective rural population will also indirectly benefit from the project.
The expected outputs of the two years project duration are:
exchanges of knowledge between farming communities and experts conducted with Swiss guidance and expertise
an inventory and search lists of the old autochthonous fruit varieties
a demonstration orchard with a core collection of the main traditional fruit trees of Transylvania
an integrated economic and conservation concept, along with awareness and educational activities including practical Swiss know-how transfer about the live conservation of rare autochthonous fruit varieties.
The knowledge generated and the tools created in the project, regarding autochthonous Transylvanian fruit varieties and traditional growing and grafting techniques, will not only be disseminated in Romania, but also in Switzerland. This way, the project outputs will benefit not only the local villagers, farmers and experts communities of Transylvania, but also government organizations, NGOs, scientific organizations, and expert and farmer communities of Switzerland, contributing to the reduction of disparities between the two countries and considerably enhancing project sustainability.
The MET is working in 30 communities to preserve the cultural and natural heritage of Romania. MET started its work in Mălâncrav 10 years ago, where it owns an orchard of 108 hectares in this historic village. Some traditional varieties of apple, pear, plum, and walnut trees are to be found in this orchard. Organic apple juice from the orchard is produced and sold throughout Romania.
The Swiss partner SAVE Foundation has been successfully engaged for more than 20 years in safeguarding of agrobiodiversity, networking organisations that strive to halt and reverse the trend of genetic erosion of biodiversity in agriculture.
The first preparatory steps for a successful conservation of Transylvanian fruit varieties were already done within the project “Conservation of Transylvanian Fruit Varieties” supported by Heidehof Foundation, Germany.
The proposed project has a pilot character, targeting the rural community of the village Mălâncrav and the Laslea Commune that it is part of, and will be implemented under the umbrella of the “Whole Village Project” developed by the Mihai Eminescu Trust. The integrated approach of the proposed project tackling in situ conservation of fruit varieties, active involvement and education of local communities, combined with awareness raising activities, will lead to a strengthening of the civil society: rural life and work will have a more sustainable basis, through the knowledge and utilisation of traditional heritage.