Greener Agriculture for a Sustainable Sea (GRASS) conference 2018
Welcome to the GRASS conference!
Greener Agriculture for a Sustainable Sea / GRASS 2018 Conference – Agriculture in the Baltic Sea Region and Sustainable Development Goals was arranged on 13-14 December 2018 at the IBB Johannes Rau Center
in Minsk, Belarus.
The Conference addressed a wide range of national and international stakeholders (farmers, authorities, academia, NGOs, general public and media) and focused on the following two thematic blocks:
13 December: Bioeconomy / Circular Economy; nutrient recycling; nutrient accounting; nutrient sensitive areas; Sustainable Development Goals, River Basin Management
December 13-14, 2018
Minsk, Belarus
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
WHEN: 13-14 December 2018
WHERE: IBB Johannes Rau Center in Minsk, Belarus.
Plenary sessions
- Welcome words, Bernd Hemingway, Deputy Director General of the Secretariat, Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS)
- GRASS Introduction
- WWF Baltic Sea Farmer of the Year Award, Anu Suono, WWF Baltic Ecoregion Programme
- HELCOM Baltic Sea Regional Nutrient Recycling Strategy, Tarja Haaranen, Vice-Chair of the Helsinki Commission – HELCOM, Environmental Counsellour, Ministry of the Environment, Finland
- Circular Economy, Eugeniy Lobanov, Center for Environmental Solutions, Belarus (in Russian)
- SDGs, BSAP and Agriculture – Synergies and Perspectives, Dietrich Schulz, Independent expert, former Chair of HELCOM Agri Group, Germany
- SDG accelerators, Natalia Minchenko, UNDP SDG Project, Belarus (in Russian)
- Healthy Food – Healthy Life, Natalia Cholovska, Ecoterra, Ukraine (in Russian)
- Vision for the Baltic Sea Region 2030, Olga Zuin, CBSS – Baltic 2030 Unit
Parallel sessions
1.Nutrient recycling and nutrient balances
- Nutrient Balances in Agriculture – An overview, Dietrich Schulz, Indipendent expert, former Chair of HELCOM Agri Group, Germany
- Nutrient resources management within Baltic agriculture – the key to solve the Baltic eutrophication problem, Gunnar Norén, CCB Senior Advisor
- Sustainable Manure and Nutrient Management (SuMaNu) Project, Paula Biveson, BSAG Project Director
2. Climate and Agriculture
- Global megatrends and Bioeconomy/Agriculture, Valdur Lahtvee, Policy Officer, Permanent Secretariat of the Council of the Baltic Sea States and Baltic 2030 Unit/HA Climate Coordinator
- Carbon Action: joining science, farmers and policies to a journey from problems to solutions, Paula Biveson, BSAG Project Director
3. Farmers dialogue
- Agri-environmental measures in Poland, Maria Staniszewska, Polish Ecological Club, Gliwice
- Decreasing nitrogen loss from agriculture with slurry acidification techniques, Erik Sindhöj, Phd, RISE – Research Institute of Sweden
4. Healthy River – Healthy Me – Healthy Sea project workshop
- Update on the project progress, Mikhail Durkin, CCB
14 December: Organic agriculture, including legal aspects, market support, awareness and education
- Organic farming – Global Survey, Lubomyr Klepach, Organic Agriculture Specialist, Ecoidea, Belarus (in Russian)
- Research in Sustainable Agriculture, Svetlana Semenas, Agro-Eco-Culture, Belarus (in Russian)
- New EU standard organic agriculture, S. Galashevskij, Organic Standard (in Russian)
- BSc education – Organic Agriculture, Zhuravel, Ukraine (in Russian)
- Organic market trends, O. Mironenko, Russia (in Russian)
Before the opening the participants were invited to visit an exhibition of organic production and awareness raising literature/books.
The Ministry of Agriculture
and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus, together with representatives from Helsinki Commission (HELCOM), the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) and Coalition Clean Baltic (CCB), welcomed the participants.
“A sustainable agriculture means reducing the impact on land and marine resources, but also support inclusiveness and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda“ affirmed Mikhail Durkin, CCB Executive Secretary, during his speech.
The opening was followed by the award ceremony of the WWF Baltic Sea Farmer of the Year 2018 in Belarus and Ukraine. The WWF Baltic Sea Farmer of the Year Award was launched in 2009 to highlight best practices and recognize farmers who are leading the way to reduce nutrient runoff on their farms. The national winner, who received a prize of 1,000 euro each, were:
- Kanstantsin Chychyra (Kanstantsin Chychyra LPH Farm) from Belarus
- Bogdan Kostiv (Kostiv R.P. Farm) from Ukraine
- Igor and Irina Rudenko (Zarechye Farm) from Russia
Discussions and panels on SDGs and climate change related to agriculture, best practices in the Baltic Sea Region regarding the achievement of good environmental quality and sustainable agriculture, as well as a focus on the development of organic agriculture in Belarus were successful achieved during these two days event.
The GRASS conference is one of our annual events.
You can read more about the project and the previous or future editions.
The GRASS Conference was organised by CCB with the support of UNDP in Belarus, the CBSS Expert Group on Sustainable Development, the Helsinki Commission, Ecoidea and WWF Baltic Ecoregion Programme.
Foto credit: Ecoidea.by
