About us
The general concept of agroecology is quite broad, consequently, the use within ecological research at the national and European level can be quite diverse with different groups highlighting different elements and topics. In the understanding of the Special Interest Group ‘Agroecology’ embraces science, a set of practices and a social movement. The concept is applied to whole agri-food systems. As a science, it gives priority to action research, holistic and participatory approaches, and transdisciplinarity. As a practice, it is based on sustainable use of renewable resources, farmers’ knowledge and priorities, the use of biodiversity to provide ecosystem services and resilience, and solutions that provide multiple benefits (environmental, economic, social) from local to global scale. As a movement, it defends interests of farmers and rural communities, food sovereignty, sustainable food supply chains, diversity of indigenous seeds and breeds, healthy and quality food.
The combination of goals of sustainable, biodiversity-promoting agriculture, which ensures the supply of food, feed and bio-based raw materials and at the same time adapts to the effects of climate change, can only be achieved through systemic transformation. Agroecology is increasingly recognised as a transition pathway, which supports environmental sustainability, producer autonomy, and economic resilience. Application-oriented agroecological research with interdisciplinary approaches, the inclusion of practical agricultural experience and knowledge transfer are becoming increasingly important for this. In this context, transdisciplinary and transformative project formats, such as living labs, landscape laboratories and inter-farm cooperation projects, are increasingly shaping the agroecological research landscape. In such project formats, ecologists and farmers with their respective expectations and objectives meet very directly and are challenged to arrive at jointly developed research, development and solution approaches through joint learning.
The Special Interest Group ‘Agroecology’ intends to be a forum for exchange of information between pure and applied researchers, policy makers, land-users and food producers. We focus on the exchange of ideas on sustainable land-use systems in the sense of safeguarding and enhancing essential process flows and functions of land-use systems. Our credo is to establish a link between ecological science and needs of the agricultural practice considering biodiversity and environmental friendly and socially acceptable approaches on different scale levels (landscape, farm, field).
Aims
in details our aims are:
- Promotion of inter- and transdisciplinary cooperation, communication and discussion of all members of GfÖ working in the field of ‘Agroecology‘
- Collation and consolidation of special knowledge and skills present in the GfÖ in order to forward conclusions derived from our discussions to policy makers
- Development of scenarios, visions and future concepts of sustainable land-use systems in respect to our focus on agroecology (e.g. basic criteria and principles, environmental and socioeconomic targets and components)
- Identification of research needs (in defined areas), initiating temporary contact and/or project groups on special topics, offering a platform for collaboration
In this respect we welcome offers for meetings or expert excursions on special topics and conduct them at irregular intervals. Please contact us if you want to become a member of the Special interest Group ‘agroecology’.
Team
The agroecology specialist group is coordinated by:
Prof. Dr. Jens Dauber
Thünen Institut, Institut für Biodiversität
Bundesallee 65
38116 Braunschweig
jens.dauber (at) thuenen.de
Prof. Dr. Tillmann Buttschardt
Universität Münster, Institut für Landschaftsökologie
Heisenbergstr. 2
48149 Münster
tillmann.buttschardt (at) uni-muenster.de
News
Next AK-meeting at 02.09.2025 19:30 Uhr at the GfÖ Annual Meeting in Würzburg
Agroecology Europe Forum, Malmö 2025 (https://www.agroecology-europe.org/agroecology-europe-forum-2025/)
Links to agroecology
AGROECOLOGY EUROPE: A EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION FOR AGROECOLOGY (www.agroecology-europe.org)
FAO Agroecology Knowledge Hub (https://www.fao.org/agroecology/home/en/)
European Agroecology Partnership (https://www.agroecologypartnership.eu/)
Agroecology for Europe Hub (https://www.agroecology-europe-hub.org/en/home)
