Partners
• Università degli Studi Di Genova - Giardini Botanici Hanbury, Genova
• Distretto Florovivaistico del Ponente Ligure, Sanremo
• Impresa verde s.r.l., Imperia
• Consiglio per la Ricerca e la Sperimentazione in Agricoltura - Unità di ricerca per la floricoltura e le specie ornamentali, Sanremo
• Istituto Regionale per la Floricoltura, Sanremo
• Centro Regionale di Sperimentazione e Assistenza (CeRSAA), Albenga

Funding body
Directorate General Environment – European Commission

Objectives
• General objectives
- to create a sustainable management system for Floriculture and Ornamental horticulture, embracing social, economic and environmental sectors and paying particular attention to some key environmental aspects (resource consumption, wastes, land use, etc);
- to analyse, evaluate and reduce the main environmental impacts of floriculture improving efficiency and without neglecting economic viability;
- to assist SMEs of Floriculture for the application of best available techniques, innovative technologies and practices to ensure compliance with national and EU regulations on the environment;
- to show by quantitative measures, in the framework of the Göteborg strategy, opportunities and benefits deriving from a sustainable floriculture;
- to test and improve current methods of certification to provide floriculture products with an added value both in terms of quality and sustainability.
• Specific objectives for CERSAA
- Enabling farmers to identify the most suitable techniques and strategies to evaluate the switch from traditional to 2 main kinds of renewable energy sources (photovoltaic and wind power) on a farm scale in order to perform more environmental-friendly productions and to enhance their competitiveness (ACTION 6);
- Monitoring of nitrate release in water bodies and definition of vulnerable areas; analysis of the fate of nitrates in the environment and evaluation of the possible remediation techniques (ACTION 7);
- Identify, characterize, and quantify waste production fluxes from Floriculture and Ornamental Horticulture activities in order to reduce waste generation and to optimize the management cycle by the maximization of recycle and reuse practices (ACTION 8.2).

Materials and methods
The Hanbury Botanical Gardens (Giardini Botanici Hanbury) is charged with project management and monitoring.
The project is arranged into 22 actions organized as follows:
• five actions (from 18 to 22) dealing with the overall set-up, management, monitoring and reporting of the project;
• ten key actions (from 1 to 10) representing the operational core of the project and involving a number of floriculture farms all located in the western Riviera agricultural and nursery
gardening District of Liguria (north-western part of Italy, provinces of Imperia and Savona); the floricultural production in the area represents the most important in the sector at national level;
• seven actions (from 11 to 17) dealing with the communication and dissemination of activities and results.
Key actions include a preparatory action (Action 1) aimed at an early involvement in project activities of farm managers in order to make easier the implementation phase.
The implementation phase is composed by seven operational actions (from 2 to 8) dealing with two general topics: the overall assessment of environmental security and the technical improvement toward the sustainability. The first topic tackles the issue of security at different spatial scales: starting from the characterization of practices to improve the integration of floriculture sector in the local territory from a social, economic and environmental point of view, passing through the evaluation and the improvement of production chain sustainability level and finally, the application of protocols which reduce the use of chemical inputs and ensure a responsible approach to workers’ health and safety. Actions pertaining to the second topic are aimed at testing technical improvements to better environmental performances of farms with regard to the following issues: water and energy consumption as well as nitrates and wastes (management / reduction and recycling) emission or generation.

Expected results
• to characterise critical phases of the production chain from a sustainability point of view;
• to characterise the best available technique to reduce negative impacts on the surrounding environment;
• to support the integration of floriculture in the local context;
• to suggest guidelines for sustainable management of Floriculture;
• to improve the knowledge of sector operators for what concerning the environmental impacts;
• to realize a multifunctional demonstrative advanced system of farms that is a good example for the entire flower industry;
• to formulate a set of guidelines and best practices to be applied at EU level to boost floriculture farm sustainable management.

Web site

<< Back to project