Picture: Zuzana Špaková, vice-chair of the Czech Society for Agroforestry, and Bastian Pellhammer from Ecotop-consult (photo: Andrea Špaková www.andreaspak.com)
On 27-31 May 2024, the Czech Republic had the honour of hosting the 7th European Agroforestry Conference EURAF. It takes place every 2 years and this year its preparation was undertaken by CSAL (Czech Society for Agroforestry), Mendel University in Brno and others. Thank you very much to everyone who participated in the demanding preparations and the rich programme!
A total of 396 delegates from 43 countries attended EURAF and had the opportunity to listen to 137 presentations focused on the potential benefits of agroforestry. One of the keynote speakers and the newly elected President of the European Agroforestry Federation (EURAF) was Prof. Ing. Bohdan Lojka, Ph.D. from the Faculty of Tropical Agriculture of the Czech University of Agriculture in Prague. Congratulations!
Patrick Worms, former President of EURAF, policy advisor on global agroforestry and Trustee of IUAF, International Union of Agroforestry, was also a distinguished guest. We encourage you to listen to this engaging and motivating podcast about the state of agroforestry in the world and how it can be improved.
We are delighted that the topic of Syntropic Agriculture/Dynamic Agroforestry (DAF) has emerged with unprecedented intensity at such an important event.
One of the keynote speakers at the conference was the witty and thoughtful Joachim Milz, director of Ecotop, a foundation and consultancy company that has worked with ErnstGötsch, the founder of syntropic agriculture, since its inception and has been helping farmers and agronomists for over 25 years, mainly in Africa, Latin America, and partly in Europe and Asia.
Joachim spoke on Employing the Principles of Life in Dynamic Agroforestry Practice.
In the Farmers Experiences session, our other favourite, Renke de Vries, briefly presented his almost five years of pioneering experience in Central Europe in a presentation entitled: Implementing Syntropic Agroforestry systems in Germany.
Renke established experimental plots on a total of 18ha of very sandy soil with minimal rainfall. He has developed various designs for fruit and grain production and for transforming a monoculture pine forest into a syntropical edible forest garden and has experience in using agricultural techniques to establish and manage syntropical designs on larger areas. More about his work and a recent visit can be found here.
Brankica Babec from the Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops in Novi Sad, Serbia, shared a positive experience with the diversification of a hazelnut and sunflower plantation, which was carried out under the guidance of Ecotop-consult (Bastian Pellhammer) and with the external collaboration of Renke de Vries. The presentation, entitled Implementing dynamic agroforestry: A case study of the Project in Serbia, gave an overview of the process of getting rid of the dependence on drip irrigation by working with natural principles.
Representatives of the Greek ANYFION project shared their experiences and challenges in growing citrus in a dynamic agroforestry scheme and in a comparative monoculture planting.
After the event, Jeroen Watté, Belgian agroecologist and soil specialist, praises on his profile that this year’s EURAF created so much space for Syntropic Agriculture…
And they don’t know that before EURAF, SYNTROPY CZ organized a full-day workshop with Ecotop senior consultant Bastian Pellhammer on the topic of:
Principles of syntropic agriculture and creating a design for temperate climates.
During the workshop, Bastian explained the basic principles and philosophy of syntropic agriculture in a fun and interactive way, the participants created a species grid for temperate climates and in the practical part they could try out the establishment of a small-scale design within the so-called “islands”.
What you can look forward to next:
At the moment we are processing the video footage of the event with Bastian and the finished cut will soon be available for a small donation at www.syntropickezemedelstvi.cz.
Dan Hrabina is busily preparing the Czech version of a really good podcast with Renke de Vries, which is packed with practical information about the founding of synthropic design in Central European conditions.
We’re waiting for the final touches to be put on the Czech subtitles for the short but powerful documentary Life in Syntropy.
On 12-18 August 2024, the PILGRIM association, under the leadership of the famous Czech ecophilosopher, Mr. Jiří Zemánek, is organizing the ninth seminar of the Wandering University of Nature: From the Anthropocene to the Symbiocene or Paths to a Life-Supporting Civilization.
On 15 August, in the evening session, Elsa Šebková will join the event via video chat and, on the basis of her own quarter-year experience, will try to present Gotsch’s concept of synthropic agriculture not only as a new paradigm for agriculture, but above all as a society-wide vision that calls for a shift from competition and separation to cooperation and harmony and for the return of man to his true place in the ecosystem.
November 2024: A mysterious surprise ;). If you don’t want to miss anything important, sign up for our newsletter.
We hope you enjoyed this news and we look forward to seeing you at some of the events 😉
On behalf of the SYNTROPY CZ team
Elsa Sebkova
