Create a value from a so called “worthless activity”: ADEPT Organization from Romania

A sustainable vision (It all started with a vision!)

ADEPT’s mission is to protect the nature-rich, farmed landscapes of the Târnava Mare area of Transylvania, working with and supporting the small-scale farming communities that created them over centuries and who maintain them today. ADEPT aims to give these landscapes and communities an economic future in the 21st century without sacrificing their sustainability and productivity, which are in fact a model of wider significance in Europe.

Do you know that this habitat of wildflowers- rich grassland is almost completely lost in Western Europe?!

ADEPT’s vision is to give landscapes and communities an economic future through sustainable land use that increase long-term productivity and "the essential” innovation in technology as well as in holistic thinking (for instance creating new brands from local products, developing many tourism branches including scientific tourism and biking).

 Let’s have a look on their work and brands http://www.fundatia-adept.org/

Basically ADEPT created four major groundswells in the areas of:

1.    Biodiversity: Inclusion of the area in Natura 2000 network

2.   Farming: effective agro-environment measures suited to the area, and grants based on recognition of the landscape as Natura 2000 and High Nature Value.

3.   Innovation and technology: brand linked to the high biodiversity, development of responsible rural tourism

4. Community: training courses and public awareness programme for instance: books, school programmes, posters, newsletters and village festivals

At first a local project, after 10 years a NGO with national and international influence! How they did it? 

An open minded approach was developed! Value is not always about pure (not mixed) environments, solutions or decisions! You can obtain the best results from collecting the advantages of two or more striking areas for creating a new domain. Do not set your objectives to exclusively one direction results! Try to see the whole picture! 

For instance “ When ADEPT started work in 2004, these kinds of man-made landscapes did not enjoy support. They were not valued for nature conservation, since conservation NGOs and policy-makers emphasized wilderness areas. On the other hand the landscapes were not valued by development NGOs and policy-makers, because their low-intensity land management was seen as contradictory to the goals of competitiveness, productivity and poverty-reduction” said the team.

Briefly they valued the man-made landscapes for both: degree of wildness and small quantity but high quality production!

When you “are small” you need help, but how can you obtain it?

Financial solutions are a must! ADEPT team started to search for it from the start (November 2004), as a consequence they came up with a biodiversity conservation and rural development project, which was submitted at Darwin Initiative – DEFRA, United Kingdom Government. Furthermore this finance (of 50%) needed another finance of 50% which was given by Orange Romania. This project was implemented for a three years period. Meanwhile the team used the results of this project in order to develop other ideas into new projects, that “(the results of this project) helped us to survive on the market for over 10 years”

Every entrepreneur has “sticks in the wheels” from time to time …

The manager of ADEPT, Cristian Gherghiceanu admits this fact and sustains that “The obstacles were many and will be many more”. Among the most frequent obstacles faced by the team are related to Romanian authorities that are only exigent, without acting as real partners. Another unexpected impediment which the organization dealt was the lack of cooperation with Regional Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority that was asked for a competent opinion (on scheme basis) regarding the construction of the fruit and vegetables processing unit. The authority response was that is impossible to give an advice due to the fact that they will be involved in a “conflict of interest”. In other words the authority refused to advise the team according to the building process before the official inspection visit (obviously after the building would be finished). According to Cristian Gherghiceanu the collaboration is better now due to the decision of involving the authorities in all their projects through meetings, seminars or project visits.

When asked about future plans the team said “There are several reasons to be optimistic that the results will be long-lasting:

• mapping and inventories of habitats and species have provided a tool to influence the design of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to improve its support for small-scale farming systems.

• the activities have left skills in the area, and local people are increasingly confident about their future

• there are over 18,000 ha of threatened grassland receiving support payments under the current CAP

• local producers are getting better value for their products now they are branded with the nature value of the landscape

• local people – farmers, and the next generation of farmers, the school children –understand much better the value of the land that surrounds them. Local pride is developing, which, combined with financial incentives, will assure a much brighter future for some of Europe’s last great lowland grasslands.”

Generally this is the way that ADEPT succeeded. But remember that each veritable entrepreneur starts a company in a different way, in his or her own way! So hold on to your passion and explore that (follow the things that really matter to you) and do not forget the hardest thing is just to start (now)!!!