LIFE VAIA

• Project name: LIFE VAIA-Valuing Afforestation of Damaged Woods with Innovative Agroforestry
• Start date: March 2021
• End date: September 2026
• Duration: 5 years
• Total project budget: EUR 6 million, financed at 60% rate
• Program: Life – LIFE20 CCA/IT/001630

THE PROJECT.

LIFE VAIA (Valuing Afforestation of Damaged Woods with Innovative Agroforestry) allows the territory not only to repair the damage it has suffered, but also to become an example of sustainable valorization of natural resources for a better quality and resilience of European forests in the future.

The project will reforest forest areas destroyed by extreme events (such as hurricanes or fires), improving their ecosystems through a greater variety of species, so that future forests will be more resilient to extreme events and expected changes in climate, as well as enhanced biodiversity. During the time it takes to reconstitute the forest cover, temporary and sustainable productive activities will be inserted, with small-scale agricultural cultivation (agroforestry in organic regime) of local plants, such as berries (especially blueberry), medicinal plants (arnica, St. John’s Wort, lavender) and alimurgical plants (hops, goat’s beard, cycerbite). To these are added the enhancement of bee production and attention to the creation of habitats, such as water holes, created to provide a water reserve for cultivation, but designed from the outset to become pools suitable for amphibian reproduction. All of this is developed with a focus on the sustainable use of natural resources, environmental improvement, but also the economic sustainability of the LIFE VAIA model, to allow economic support to local communities even when their resources (natural and economic, such as timber) are lacking for many years after a disaster event.

PARTNERSHIP

Lead partner: Rigoni di Asiago

Project partners: Agenzia Veneta per l’Innovazione nel Settore Primario (former Veneto Agricoltura), University of Padova, Dipartimento Territorio e Sistemi Agro-Forestali (TESAF), Fondazione Edmund Mach, Municipality of Asiago, Municipality of Gallio, Association Française d’Agroforesterie (AFAF, Francia), World Biodiversity Association (WBA), Fair Longarone Dolomiti, Università di Santiago di Compostela (Spagna), Venetian Cluster

Project website: www.lifevaia.eu