Das Projekt "Green Cook - internationale Strategie für eine nachhaltige Bewirtschaftung von Lebensmitteln" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Stuttgart, Institut für Siedlungswasserbau, Wassergüte- und Abfallwirtschaft, Lehrstuhl für Abfallwirtschaft und Abluft durchgeführt. GreenCook is aimed at reducing food wastage and to make the North-West Europe a model of sustainable food management, by in-depth work on the consumer / food relationship thanks to a multisectoral partnership. Food wastage is a challenging problem, directly linked with the question of waste, consumption and climate change. A quarter of the food produced in the world each year ends up in the dustbin, without having been consumed. Food wastage, a reflection of our overconsumption society, also reinforces social inequalities and is ethically unacceptable. The negative impacts of this wastage are real: for households (useless expenditure), for local authorities (overproduction of waste to be treated, increased costs), for the environment (pointless use of resources and pollution), and for the economy (falling prices). There is a pressing need, for consumers to respect food and food producers again, to enjoy the pleasure of healthy and tasty eating again, to rediscover culinary know-how, and to optimise food presentation, storage and conservation. Lately, tools and methods are under experimentation to help consumers to improve their food management while controlling their purchasing power. They aim at changing behaviour or altering the offer (at the supermarket, in the restaurant or in the canteen). It is alas hard for them to be generalised, because of the complexity of the levers that have to be activated. GreenCooks ambition is to create this lever effect, by generating a dynamic that motivates all of the food players and by throwing pathbreaking bridges with the fields of health, welfare and economic development. Its diversified partnership intends to show the added value of united, transversal action, and to influence EU policies, in order to get a new European sustainable food model to emerge. Prime Contractor: Espace Environnement asbl; Charleroi; Belgien.
Das Projekt "Regionalskaliger Modellalgorithmus zur mehrfaktoriellen Optimierung von Bodenerosionsschutz, Mykotoxinbelastung und Schadpilzantagonistenpotenzialen in getreidereichen Fruchtfolgen" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Leibniz-Zentrum für Agrarlandschaftsforschung e.V., Institut für Landschaftsstoffdynamik durchgeführt. Ungefähr ein Viertel der degradierten Böden in Brandenburg ist durch Erosion geschädigt. Diese gefährdeten Ackerstandorte Brandenburgs werden zunehmend durch konservierende Bodenbearbeitungsverfahren geschützt. Dabei auftretende negative Auswirkungen sind ein teilweise massives Schimmelpilzwachstum auf den organischen Rückständen, das zu einer möglichen Mykotoxinbelastung vor allem bei getreidereichen Fruchtfolgen führen kann. Der Krankheitsdruck dieser pilzlichen Erreger ist von einem ganzen Komplex verschiedener Parameter abhängig. Eine bisher wenig beachtete Möglichkeit zur Beeinflussung dieser phytopathogenen Pilze sind natürliche Antagonisten wie z.B. Mykorrhizapilze. Diese mehrfaktoriellen Wirkungsketten sollen in einem regionalskaligen Ansatz in mehreren Gebieten Brandenburgs aufgeklärt und deren Einflußfaktoren ausgewiesen werden. Gemeinsam mit den schon vorhandenen Modulen zur Erosion und zur Fruchtfolge werden die Ergebnisse in einen Modellalgorithmus eingebunden, der zu einer Optimierung des Ackerbaus hinsichtlich des Boden- und Verbraucherschutzes führen soll.
Das Projekt "Global Change and Mountain Regions: The Mountain Research Initiative Coordination Office" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Bern, Geographisches Institut durchgeführt. Mountain regions provide goods and services for much of humanity. Twelve percent of the world's population lives in mountain regions and half of humanity depends on resources arising in mountain regions. Outside of the tropics, mountain regions provide 40Prozent of all the freshwater, and in arid and semi-arid regions, this fraction approaches 70-100Prozent. Mountains contain one quarter of Earth's terrestrial biodiversity and one half of the planet's biodiversity hot spots. Mountain forests and soils are among the major terrestrial carbon pools. Mountain ecosystems are very sensitive to drivers of change, from climate change to the loss of vegetation and soils due to inappropriate management practices and extractive industries. The future ability of mountain regions to provide their many goods and services to highland and lowland residents is seriously threatened by climatic changes, environmental pollution, unsustainable management of natural resources and serious gaps in understanding of mountain systems. Both fundamental research activities and transdisciplinary efforts are required to achieve sustainable use of mountain regions. While a number of regional or disciplinary programs exist, the global mountain research community has historically operated at a sub-optimal level due to insufficient communication across geographic and linguistic barriers, less than desirable coordination of research frameworks, and a lack of funding. The Mountain Research Initiative (MRI) was created to overcome these constraints by (1) framing research approaches within an interdisciplinary integrative framework; (2) improving communication to overcome the isolation of researchers separated by distance, language and discipline; and (3) influencing funding for global change research in mountain regions. The MRI supports the science needed to adapt successfully to global change by building on its successes to frame the research agenda, implement that agenda at a global and regional levels, integrate research results, provide key information services, improve communications and advocate for funding of global change research in mountains. With the support of several Swiss funding agencies, a small MRI Project Office was established in Bern in July 2001. It was funded at a more significant level by SNF in 2004. To conserve its limited resources, the MRI moved its main office to ETH Zürich in 2005 and also opened a small, free office at the University of Lausanne in order to reinforce contacts in French-speaking Switzerland. In 2007 MRI will move its main office to the University of Bern. Products will include articles in peer-reviewed journals, a scientifically focused Newsletter, an enhanced website, an expanded database of researchers and research programs, and innovative use of webcast and internet based communications.