With a meeting in Montenegro on 23 and 24 January, gathering the MOAN-Mediterranean Organic Farming Network https://moan.iamb.it/ , the project coordinated by CIHEAM Bari comes to an end. It saw experts from the Agronomic Institute and MASAF-Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry at work to support the Montenegrin Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management in its activity of harmonising and aligning organic farming legislation with the acquis communautaire, i.e. with the European Regulation 2018/848.
By supporting legislative alignment, the project, which had the backing of the CEI-Central European Initiative, and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, also aimed to represent a concrete opportunity to start strengthening the local organic production system: the sector is still small (there are about 4,000 hectares cultivated organically) but growing and full of potential.
The final event, involving in particular MOAN representatives from Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Albania and Kosovo, intends to promote not only the results of the project and the recommendations that emerged from it, but also to share and discuss best practices in terms of organic farming legislation in the Western Balkans area, and the possibility of national governments providing adequate support to the development of organic farming at the national level, aligning themselves with the new European vision that makes organic a central element of sustainable food systems.
MOAN is an institutional platform that brings together representatives of Ministries responsible for agriculture to exchange data, knowledge and experiences for the development of Mediterranean organic agriculture. It brings together 24 countries in the region, and is a tool to promote cooperation and policy dialogue for sustainable production and consumption models in Mediterranean communities and territories, through the dissemination of the enduring values and innovative practices of organic agriculture.
Source: CIHEAM Bari