Agroecology

Mission statement of the special interest group agroecology

Who?

• We are a special interest group of the GfÖ (including also non-GfÖ members)
• We consist of scientists working in basic and applied agroecological research

What?

• Promoting transformative and transdisciplinary agroecological research

How we seek to do this by…

• … fostering an open network of scientists
• … connecting societies related to agroecology
• … facilitating exchange with stakeholders outside academia
• … providing scientific evidence (e.g. on effective practices/measures)
• … informing policy about agroecological topics/issues

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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).

 

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 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.

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Team

The agroecology specialist group is coordinated by:

 

 

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News

Save-the-date: 2. Annual Meeting AK Agroecology, 15th/16th March 2027, Göttingen

Joint NSO-GfÖ conference, Odense, Denmark, 13th-17th September 2026 with contributions from our special interest group

Policy brief published: Cord et al. (2025): "So gelingt transdisziplinäre Forschung für eine nachhaltige Agrarwende".

1st Annual Meeting of the AK Agroecology:
This April, the 1st Annual Meeting of our AK took place in Würzburg. We had two days of discussions on the AK structure, agroecological methods and networking opportunities resulting in a couple of smaller groups that now start with preparing a regular newsletter, a monthly webinar series and planning next year’s AK Annual Meeting in Göttingen. Jens Dauber and Daniel Vedder have been elected as AK speakers. Congratulations!

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Interested to join our special interest group?

Write an email to anne-kathrin.schneider(at)thuenen.de. You will be added to the mailing list and get our quarterly newsletter.

 

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Online resources

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)

Living toolkit for complex real-world problems: Integration and Implementation Insights – A global, comprehensive, living toolkit improving research, education and impact on complex real-world problems 

Toolkit series for participatory research methods: Participatory research methods for sustainability - toolkit series | GAIA - Ecological Perspectives for Science and Society 

Regular webinar series of AGES and Agroecology Partnership: https://www.agroecologypartnership.eu/en/activities/conversations-on-agroecology