FIREFLIES

Across Europe, agricultural landscapes are facing increasing pressure from biodiversity loss, soil degradation, and climate change. Restoring healthy ecosystems is becoming essential not only for protecting nature, but also for ensuring resilient and productive farming systems to foster food security in the future.

FIREFLIES is a Horizon Europe project that addresses this challenge by developing practical and economically viable approaches to biodiversity restoration in agriculture. Bringing together farmers, researchers, policymakers, and local stakeholders, the project supports the transition towards more sustainable land management practices that benefit both ecosystems and rural communities.

As part of a consortium of 20 partners, TMG is leading work on True Cost Accounting (TCA) analysing the true costs and benefits of selected biodiversity restoration measures. In a first step, TMG will develop a TCA framework that identifies the relevant positive and negative environmental, social, health and economic externalities for the selected farming practices. For the assessment of these externalities, key indicators and valuation approaches will be selected. This process will be informed by expert and stakeholder consultations. In a second step, the TCA framework will be tested for three farming systems in the demo regions: olive orchards in Puglia in Italy, almond orchards in Murcia in Spain and citrus orchards in Laconia in Greece. The assessments will be used to compare the costs and benefits of inaction to the application of the biodiversity restoration measures.

TMG is also involved in tasks that formulate policy recommendations and design public-private incentive schemes for biodiversity restorations fostering more sustainable land use practices. For the policy recommendations at EU and member state level, TMG will provide insights from the TCA assessments. For the development of a blended finance schemes, TMG will design and conduct interviews with stakeholders actively supporting the implementation of such schemes, gathering qualitative insights on motivations, challenges, and market opportunities.

With funding from the European Commission, the members of the FIREFLIES consortium are:

Soluciones Agroecológicas Ecoinnovadoras (SAE Innova), Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO), Fondazione Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (CMCC), 3Bee SRL, European Environmental Bureau (EEB), Esférico, Impact Hub Labs, Delbaere Consulting, The Southern Lights, Kifin Monoprosopi I.K.E. (ΚΗΦΗΝ ΜΟΝΟΠΡΟΣΩΠΗ Ι.Κ.Ε.), Fundación Regeneration Academy, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC),  Universidad de Murcia, Alberami Srl Società Benefit, Bianchi Cristiano, Lietuvos Agrarinių ir Miškų Mokslų Centras (LAMMC), Lithuanian Agricultural Advisory Service, Discovery Center Nonprofit Kft., Magyar Agrár- és Élettudományi Egyetem (MATE)