European Network for Advancement of Business and Landscape Education Erasmus Project

General information for the European Network for Advancement of Business and Landscape Education Erasmus Project

European Network for Advancement of Business and Landscape Education  Erasmus Project
July 7, 2020 12:00 am
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Project Title

European Network for Advancement of Business and Landscape Education

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Environment and climate change; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Social dialogue

Project Summary

Healthy landscapes and ecosystems are the basis of our life and economy. However, a quarter of the world’s land mass is seriously degraded from centuries of human activity. Degradation of land is related to major themes like climate change, food and water security, and biodiversity decline. These are directly connected to well-being, security, poverty and migration. Restoring and conserving landscapes is thus one of the most important tasks of our time. Yet, there is still a big gap between economy and ecology. Europe needs a practical approach for restoring landscapes based on sustainable business cases. There is a need for trust and connection between all stakeholders investing in landscape restoration. A shared understanding or language is needed and an approach that creates engagement, controls complexity and keeps partners inspired to harvest the results of their investment. Such an approach is currently not available in Europe.
The main goal of the European Network for the Advancement of Business and Landscape Education (ENABLE) has been to establish a European education platform to create awareness about the functioning of ecosystems and the benefits of sustainable landscape management that involves renowned academic partners, private business, public sectors and NGOs in developing innovative and high quality education. This education can bridge the gap and help tackle global challenges as defined in the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (eg. SDG 15.3 on Land Degradation Neutrality) and the in the EU 6th Environment Action Programme (Decision No 1600/2002/EC), and the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2020.

The ENABLE objectives are:
1. To create an inter- and transdisciplinary educational framework with innovative e-learning components that will help bridge the gap between economy and ecology, accelerate the much-needed change and help establish a “landscape management & restoration industry”
2. To teach and train business students to become generators of sustainable value for business and society at large and to work towards an inclusive and sustainable global economy
3. To initiate and facilitate dialogue and debate among educators, students, business, government, consumers, media, civil society organisations and other interested groups and stakeholders on critical issues related to global social responsibility and sustainability in general and in particular to prevention of landscape degradation and restoration.

The ENABLE consortium wants to steer the future direction of sustainable business models and of higher education in order to build synergies between economy and ecology, theory and practice, global and local approaches, business and environment and consisted of members of the following organisations from academia and practice:
Erasmus University Rotterdam – Rotterdam school of Management
Commonland
Spanish National Research Council – Centro de Edafologia y biologia aplicada del segura
United Nations University – Land Restoration Training Programme, hosted by Landbunadarhaskoli Islands
Estoril Global Conferences
Universidade Nova de Lisboa – Nova School of Business & Economics

The consortium developed 2 Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs):
1. A Business Approach to Sustainable Landscape Restoration (https://www.coursera.org/learn/landscape-restoration-sustainable-development)
2. Business Model Innovation for Sustainable Landscape Restoration (https://www.coursera.org/learn/bmi-sustainable-landscape-restoration)

5 teaching cases:
1. The Alvelal project in Spain – an example of a successful restoration initiative of collaboratively developing integrated sustainable business cases for rainfed almonds.
2. The Arento Group in Spain – Towards a Sustainable Future. This case examines how an agricultural business tries to make the transition towards higher levels of sustainability.
3. From Bare to Birch – Large-Scale Ecosystem Restoration in Iceland. The case examines how to transition from barren desertified land to a resilient and healthy woodland that can provide ecosystem services to the people in the area and beyond.
4. Reborn from Ashes – The Alvares Project. The North and Centre of Portugal encompass many productive forest areas that are particularly prone to fires. In the middle of this burnt region, the parish of Alvares stands as a representative case of the entire territory: consecutive decades of rural exodus dramatically changed the economic structure in which its population used to subsist.
5. Sustainable Finance for Landscape Restoration in Spain focuses on mobilising finance for the farmers who take part in the cooperative (Alvelal) and for the trading company (Almendrehesa). This case was turned into an online, ‘rich’ case.

A knowledge exchange platform – https://4returns.earth
This platform is an online space for a growing community of people involved in large scale landscape restoration based on the holistic 4 returns approach.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 435193 Eur

Project Coordinator

ERASMUS UNIVERSITEIT ROTTERDAM & Country: NL

Project Partners

  • UNIVERSIDADE NOVA DE LISBOA
  • LANDBUNADARHASKOLI ISLANDS
  • AGENCIA ESTATAL CONSEJO SUPERIOR DEINVESTIGACIONES CIENTIFICAS
  • Commonland Foundation
  • GD-ESTORIL INSTITUTE ASSOCIACAO PARA A PROMOCAO DO DIALOGO GLOBAL