Transylvania: could this 'lost in time' land be the future of European agriculture?

Release date	09/03/2011
Contributor	Dorin Pop
Geographical coverage	Romania, Transylvania
Keywords	agriculture, rural landscape, sustainability
Concerned URL	http://www.theecologist.org/how_to_make_a_difference/culture_change/719838/transylvania_could_this_lost_in_time_land_be_the_future_of_european_agriculture.html
Source	Laura Sevier - The Ecologist

 

Forget Count Dracula. Deep in the heart of Transylvania, an altogether more mesmerising scene is playing itself out - a

vision of what life must have been like in a medieval village.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Transylvania is steeped in farming traditions that preserve

and protect the environment

 

There's not a brightly coloured shop or advert in sight. Horse and carts clatter down the dirt track roads and cows wander

freely. There are barely any cars. And behind the tall walls of each of the old Saxon houses is a self-contained ‘courtyard

farm' complete with a wooden hay barn, livestock sheds and a small vegetable plot and fruit orchard.

 

In the distance are unfenced wildflower-rich grasslands and communal hay-meadows and beyond that, thick, old growth

forests where bears, wolves and wild cats still roam.

 

This village, Crit, is one of the 150 or so well preserved Saxon villages and settlements of southern Transylvania that have

remained almost unchanged for hundreds of years. The so-called Saxons were German colonists who immigrated to

Transylvania in the 12th and 13th centuries and they were renowned for being hard working farmers. The smallholder

lifestyle continues to flourish here today, with most villagers entirely self-sufficient.

 

The good life

 

A typical household keeps poultry, a couple of pigs, 10-20 sheep, along with 2 or 3 cows that graze on communal village

pastures by day and are milked by hand in the morning and evening in the courtyards. Fruit and vegetables are eaten

fresh from the garden or preserved in pickles or jams for the winter months. As well as growing and rearing their own,

villagers also slaughter and butcher their own animals. Every chimney has a special chamber for hanging meat

(predominantly pork) for smoking. Many households make their own wine from homegrown vines and brandy from plums.

 

This self-sufficient way of life is still deeply ingrained in rural Romania, passed down from generation to generation.

Farming dictates the rhythm of life here, both daily and seasonally - during the summer months, for instance, most

families are out in their hay-meadows with scythes and rakes making hay for their cattle and sheep.

 

‘Practically everyone is a farmer in rural Romania,' says Nat Page, director of the charitable conservation foundation

ADEPT. ‘Ninety per cent of villagers have land outside the village and their courtyard farms.' There are some shops but

they're very basic - you wouldn't even know they were shops and most people only buy things they can't make

themselves, like cooking oil, cigarettes and beer.

 

The food produced is organic in practice, although it's not certified because the costs of certification are too high. This low

impact, ‘High Nature Value' farming allows nature to thrive. Wildflowers are abundant, and many of the mammals, birds,

amphibians, reptiles, fish and insects present are rare or protected at national and international level, and have

disappeared over much of Europe.

 

Threats

 

ADEPT focuses its work in the Târnava Mare area, 85,000 hectares in the heart of the Saxon Villages area and has had the

area certified as a Natura 2000 site which gives it a basic level of protection.

 

There are, however, threats facing the landscape and local communities. ‘People are not being allowed to produce jams

and pickles in their own kitchen because of excessive interpretation of EU law by the Romanian Food Standards Agency,'

says Page. ‘They're being driven out of business and lovely old bakeries are still being closed down.' This, he stresses, is

not what Brussels wants. ‘Brussels preaches diversity, flexibility and cultural traditions but it's up to the host country to

implement it.'

 

Another problem is that 70 per cent of farmers are over 50 years old. Christi Gherghiceanu, ADEPT project manager who

grew up in the area says, ‘people older than 50 are reluctant to leave their homes. They seem to be happy with their rural

lifestyle. The rest of the population would rather abandon the villages because of the lack of financial opportunities in the

area.'

 

The biggest threats to the landscape are intensive farming - artificial fertilisers would seriously damage or destroy the

wildflower meadows and high stocking rates could lead to over-grazing - or abandonment of the land.

 

Farmers' markets

 

‘Inevitably many of the smallest farms will disappear,' says Nat Page. ‘The average size of a farm here is 1.5 hectares. In

five years time it will be three hectares. We can't say that everything is going to remain the same. But we can say we hope

small- scale farming has a future in the area.'

 

Founded in 2004, ADEPT's main objective is to protect the fragile biodiversity of Transylvania and use it to benefit local

communities. ‘We didn't just parade in with a load of money telling them what to do,' explains Page. ‘We employed local

people and we've helped small farmers in the real world. If you want to conserve an area but there are no economic

benefits, people are less responsive.'

 

ADEPT, funded by Defra's Darwin Initiative, Orange Romania and Innovation Norway, has assisted small farmers in two

main ways. The first is to help them find a market by organising regular farmer's markets in nearby towns and cities and

enabling producers to get their kitchens authorised (by persuading inspectors not to excessively interpret the Brussels

guidance). ADEPT, based in the large Saxon village of Saschiz, also provides a modern ‘food barn' authorised by the

Romanian Food Safety Authority where people can produce food. The 20 producers it works with now sell 70,000 euros

worth of produce a year through markets, although ADEPT is keen to work with more. In addition, ADEPT has helped 65

small-scale farmers gain an income again by finding a market for milk. By working with them to improve hygiene and

equipment, the farmers had their milk collection reinstated.

 

The second aspect of what ADEPT does is to help small-scale farmers get grants from the EU's Common Agricultural Policy.

Many farmers own under 1 hectare, so don't receive basic Pillar 1 payments. ADEPT is dealing this at a policy level,

promoting higher payments for small farmers.

 

To CAP it off

 

ADEPT has also helped farmers benefit from biodiversity conservation. As the area is a Natura 2000 and HNV landscape,

farmers are eligible for CAP agri-environmental payments but these are not automatic - you have to opt for them. After

running farm visits explaining the advantages of signing up, 75 per cent of eligible farmers within Târnava Mare have

joined the scheme; this is four times the rate of uptake in neighboring areas which demonstrates the desperate need for

farm advisory services in such areas.

 

This will too, of course, benefit plants and animals. ADEPT's botanist, Dr John Akeroyd, who often accompanies Prince

Charles (a regular visitor to Transylvania) on his walks through this countryside says, ‘the grasslands in this area are

uniquely rich in Europe and appear to be still in good heart thanks to continuing traditional management by local farmers'.

 

On a wider scale, Nat Page believes this project could even have an influence over the next phase of the CAP, 2013-2020,

in favour of High Nature Value landscapes elsewhere. ADEPT has been asked to present its results at EU meetings in

Brussels because it shows a way forward to protect the small-scale farmed landscapes and communities across all of

Europe. The Commissioners for Agriculture and the Environment both sent encouraging video messages to the High Nature

Value Grassland Conference organised by ADEPT in Sibiu in September 2010.

 

‘An amazing thing is happening within the EU,' says Page. ‘A few years ago everyone said these farms were irrelevant and

policy favoured competitive farms. Now small-scale farms are seen as valuable for food and landscape, with massive

benefits for flood and fire control, biodiversity and mitigation against climate change. They are increasingly appreciated as

vital for Europe's future.'

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