Welcome!
Welcome to our first newsletter of 2022! We’re really delighted to be able to bring you news and updates from our activities and work again and to share the learnings and resources from our recent collective projects and from our members with you. We hope you find this issue useful and inspiring.
Our next newsletter is planned for May. If you have articles or news you would like to share, please do get in touch and send us your contributions by mid April.
As always, do let friends and colleagues know they can sign up for the newsletter via the website.
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Learning Platform partnership
Eight organisations from across Europe collaborated in a 3 year EU-funded partnership (Erasmus +) 2018 to 2021 to share practical experience around core activities - land acquisition, farm succession, public engagement and more. Enriching exchanges yielding new resources from a beginners kit for setting up new land access initiatives to a handbook of assessment tools to measure agroecological impact on farms. Read more |
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Innovative land strategies collaboration
From 2018 to 2021, several Network members joined forces with key allies to build and disseminate strategic knowledge about land policy and advocacy strategies for agroecology and food sovereignty. Access the learnings and resources from webinars on grassroots mobilisation and policy to the handbook, Your Land, My Land, Our Land and the policy report, Roots of Resilience.
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New webinar series - call for ideas!
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 An inspiring collection of portraits showcasing volunteers from across Europe who are contributing their knowledge, time and energy to preserve farmland and support new agroecological farmers. Published in 6 languages, this brochure may serve as a useful tool for attracting new helping hands for access to land organisations and for raising awareness among policy makers.
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Innovation in Action - report on emerging land innovations
In 2021, six Access to Land members and partners involved in the RURALIZATION project developed innovative actions on diverse and emerging land topics; from exploring new ways to own farm buildings, to creating solidarity-based land access structures or promoting new visions for public farmland. A new report analyses these innovative actions and draws lessons learned on their trajectories, strategies, and outcomes, as well as on the potential of action-research frameworks to support this type of novel land work. |
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Farm Impact Assessment Handbook
 How can the very many benefits of an agroecological approach to farming be best measured? Practical, tried and tested tools showcasing 8 different methods with corresponding case studies are presented in this Handbook. Read more and download the Handbook here
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Roots of Resilience
 This milestone policy report, published by a collective of social movements and civil society organisations, coming together under the banner of the Nyéléni Europe Food Sovereignty Movement, argues for an approach to land policy in Europe based on land stewardship and agroecology. Read more and download the report here (available in English, French, Romanian and Spanish)
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On Common Ground
Eco Ruralis and Shared Assets are amongst the partners across Europe currently working on the RURALIZATION project, funded by Horizon 2020. In 2021, they worked together closely on two related ‘innovative land actions’ about council and common farmland in the UK and Romania. In a new blog, they share an update on their work and their reflections on working together. The UK work on council farmland was also recently presented at a seminar dedicated to French local authorities, followed by an exchange on how to make "public land work for the common good" ( see the video). Another testament to the importance of stimulating European exchanges on these topics!
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Our members and partners are active in the field. Take a look at what they have been up to over the last few months.
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Working with the church in Alsace, France
 Many churches across Europe are landholders and real estate owners. Terre de Liens Alsace have been exploring how best to advise and support religious communities to make the best of their agricultural properties. Read more |
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A new public agricultural land policy in Belgium
In many countries across Europe the public sector is an important land holder. Terre-en-vue has begun an exciting new project together with municipalities and other public bodies to investigate what a ‘public agricultural land policy’ could look like. Read more |
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German call for access to land for agroecology
Almost 70 agricultural ministers from around the world took part in the annual Global Forum for Food and Agriculture (GFFA) in Berlin in January. The event was subtitled ‘Sustainable land use: food security starts with the soil’. Four German organisations published a call to underline the importance of access to land for peasant farming, as well as the need to fight against the financialisation and the concentration of farmland in Germany and in Europe. Read more |
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All views expressed in this newsletter are solely those of the authors and in no way reflect the funders' opinions. The funders are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained here.
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Access to land has been rising on the agenda of the Spanish government. Based on focus group discussion with agricultural and environmental stakeholders, a report presenting a series of policy proposals to improve the regulatory and legal framework changes has now been published. 
