Agricultural intensification - the process of increasing the amount of agricultural production per unit of land area, especially through the use of farming technologies and increasing input use of fertilisers and pesticides - has contributed to a major biodiversity decline across European Union agroecosystems. One key factor has been the loss of landscape features that support biodiversity and provide vital ecosystem services.

What are landscape features? Landscape features are small patches of natural or semi-natural vegetation in farming areas that can include hedges, ponds, ditches, trees, field edges, walls, unused land, single trees, and old canals or springs.

Each type of landscape feature offers biodiversity support in its unique way. As a whole, they provide habitat diversity, create ecological corridors and microclimates, and some can even offer protection from disturbance (for example,e providing barriers that protect sensitive species from extreme weather conditions, predators or human activity), amongst other things.

As a key player in biodiversity preservation, the reintroduction of landscape features is a part of the EU’s biodiversity strategy for 2030, aiming to increase their prevalence to 10% of EU agricultural areas. This is where LAFERIA comes in!

Funded under Horizon Europe, LAFERIA (Landscape Features Reintroduction in Intensive Agricultural land) focuses on this 10% target. The project’s mission is to identify key factors for the reintroduction of landscape features, to evaluate the benefits and challenges and develop strategies for overcoming them.

Whilst LAFERIA officially began in January 2025, the project held its kick-off meeting on 25-26 February 2025, hosted at the BIOPOLIS headquarters in Vila do Conde, Portugal. It was the first occasion in which partners had the opportunity to meet in real life (with those who weren’t able to, joining online). The two-day event was all about getting on the same page and building a strong foundation for the four years of work and collaboration to come.

The coordination team, led by Francisco Moreira (BIOPOLIS), began the meeting by introducing the project’s background, goals and structure. European Commission representatives Alberto Pozza (REA) and Francisco Sánchez Crespo (European Commission) held sessions on Horizon Europe project management and relevant EU policies, such as the EU Green Deal and the aforementioned EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. The afternoon was dedicated to introducing all tasks by their leads, highlighting the connections and interdependencies between them.

Central to LAFERIA are in-depth research and action-based case studies located across seven European countries (Portugal, Finland, Sweden, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany). They will employ a participatory engagement framework to identify and work with key stakeholders in co-developing strategies for landscape reintroduction in these systems. During the second day, each case study was introduced, with a list of the area’s known landscape features and agricultural systems. The afternoon was dedicated to interactive activities encouraging open discussions and brainstorming sessions, namely on the topic of stakeholder engagement.

The two-day event marked a pivotal first step in fostering successful collaboration among all partners, setting the stage for four years of teamwork and shared progress.

In additional news, the official LAFERIA website is already live. The platform provides a comprehensive overview of the project’s background, vision, and objectives, and serves as a central hub for ongoing updates, including news articles, videos, and information on major project activities.

A key feature of the website is a dedicated section for LAFERIA’s stakeholder community - a network of professionals and experts engaged in landscape restoration and biodiversity support. By joining the network, stakeholders will gain access to regular updates and opportunities to participate in project-related activities such as workshops, webinars, surveys, and other tailored engagements that contribute to LAFERIA’s mission.

Stay tuned on all things LAFERIA by checking out the official website and following the project on LinkedIn, Bluesky and Youtube.

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LAFERIA receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Agricultural Land Research and Innovation programme under grant agreement No 101181492. Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the EU nor REA can be held responsible for them.