The Pays de la Loire Regional Chamber of Agriculture has created and made available to local authorities a tool kit on agroecological infrastructures available online and presented it during a study trip.
The Pays de la Loire Regional Chamber of Agriculture carries out two actions as part of the LIFE REVERS’EAU project, which aims to restore water quality in Pays de la Loire Region. In its action on the promotion of tools for land management and sprawl restraint, the Chamber of Agriculture has created a tool kit on agroecological infrastructures (AEI). It aims to support local authorities in their projects to create and maintain AEI in their territory. AEI are indeed elements of the landscape that reduce the transfer of pollutants from agricultural plots to watercourses and catchments (hedges, grass strips, buffer zone, etc.). They are considered as tools to be activated in river basins to contribute to the improvement of water quality.
The tool kit is online on the Pays de la Loire Chamber of Agriculture website (in french) : https://bit.ly/IAE_pdl
The Chamber of Agriculture organized a study trip to present and disseminate the AEI tool kit and allow exchanges between pairs. This was held on Tuesday March 22, 2022 in Aizenay in Vendée around the theme “Agroecological infrastructure and water quality”. 73 people from authorities in charge of preserving the quality of water in watercourses and catchments met to discuss AEI and their interest for their territories.Part of the exchanges proceeded indoors on the morning. The discussion consisted in:
- the presentation of the agroecological infrastructures tool kit
- the feedback from the Grand Est Chamber of Agriculture on rustic artificial wetland buffer zones positioned in the grass strip and harvesting drainage water;
- the procedures for setting up sustainable management of hedges and enhancing them in the territories with the sharing of experience from the Pays de la Loire Chamber of Agriculture, UDCUMA 85, local river basin management plan of Vie et Jaunay and the District Council of the Pays de Pouzauges.
The afternoon was devoted to a time on the farm of Thomas POPE with three workshops around the hedge, the pond and the farmers’ feedbacks.
