The PASTINNOVA Final Conference was held in Kusadasi, Turkey, in 11th February 2025, as a working session of the International Seminar “Agrosilvopastoral Futures: Bridging Tradition with Innovation in Mediterranean and Mountain Pastures” organized by the FAO-CIHEAM Network of Pastures and Fodder Crops (subnetworks on Mediterranean and on Mountain Pastures) with CIHEAM and the University of Adin Adnan Menderes. The Conference was followed by 116 participants from 17 countries from the Mediterranean basin plus other Mediterranean climate areas in the world (Australia, South Africa and USA), and Switzerland. Most of the attendees were from research and academic profiles, so it was the occasion to share with them scientific advances of the project, and to jointly reflect on grazing systems including mobile pastoral systems.
The PASTINNOVA session programme was devoted to highlight the importance of innovations in Mediterranean pastoralism, with a first presentation on the PASTINOVA approach to IBMs, followed by a set of scientific results presentations (LCA analysis in pastoral systems, Follow up method for value chain power distribution analysis, Assessment of rangeland distribution changes under climatic changes and Economic analysis of transhumant systems). In addition to these oral scientific presentations, the session counted with 14 poster presentations showing results from many PASTINNOVA case studies. The PASTINNOVA session ended with a round table on the Future of Mediterranean Pastoralism and the public policies to support it; this round table served to move the focus of the Seminar from the bio-physical to the human, social and policy aspects of pastoralism (and extensive livestock systems in general), with speeches on cooperatives and organizational aspects (Turkey), the role of women in husbandry (Lebanon), an example of how to integrate genetic resources conservation with rural development through gastronomy (Croatia), and a presentation of the PASTINNOVA White Paper on Pastoralism in the Mediterranean Areas, as a document to be shared with policy makers and other decision makers in policy-science dialogue activities.
On top of the PASTINNOVA session, several (8) contributions from PASTINNOVA partners were presented in the other scientific sessions of the event (dealing with building resilience, innovations for improving pastures and forages, new technologies supporting and monitoring agrosilvopastoralism, and an early career session).
The previous day to the PASTINNOVA Conference the participants enjoyed from a field visit to the Mount Latmos agrosilvopastoral area, a protected landscape created by the traditional use combining stone pine forest (for nut and timber production), local cattle grazing and some cropping (mainly traditional olive and walnut orchards); discussions were established on the richness of forage resources (and in general of botanic endemic species) in the area, on the animal husbandry practices and on the land management system where public forest lands and private rangelands are interweaved.
