Janusz Wojciechowski
European Commissioner for Agriculture
Throughout his tenure as European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski has demonstrated unwavering dedication to shaping a sustainable future for European agriculture. With a distinguished career that spans politics, law, and public service, Commissioner Wojciechowski recognises the potential of innovation and technological advancements to enhance productivity, sustainability, and resilience in agriculture. Under his leadership, the European Commission's Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development worked to address various challenges related to climate change, economic volatility or biodiversity loss - issues that will also remain high on the list of the next College of EU Commissioners. EURAF also welcomes the fact that agroforestry was clearly recognised as part of agricultural land (Article 4(3) of the Strategic Plan Regulation) and all Member States have now provided their own definitions of agroforestry. We look forward to hearing more via his video intervention on how agroforestry can maximise its contribution to EU's agro-environmental challenges!
Ion Codescu
European Commission
Ion Codescu is the head of the land use & management unit in DG ENV of the European Commission. The unit coordinates the efforts to make the EU agriculture more sustainable and resilient, to protect forests and soils, as well as waters from excess nutrients.
Emmanuel Petel
European Commission
Emmanuel PETEL is a policy officer at the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) at the European Commission. Currently, he is working on the integration of environmental concerns into the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), in particular in relation to soil health and carbon sequestration and on the promotion nature-based practices such as agroforestry, agroecology, regenerative agriculture. During last programing period (2014 2022), he led a team to manage a "greening" payment: 30% of the direct payments granted to the farmers who respected some basic practices: crop diversification, maintenance of permanent pasture, setting up an ecological focus area on the arable land by promoting landscape features. As regards the CAP post 2023, Emmanuel PETEL has been involved in the implementation of a new greening architecture (enhancing certain requirements and providing a new funding opportunity such as eco-scheme). Therefore, he has contributed to assess the strategic CAP plan for some Member States, in order to achieve better ambition in relation biodiversity and protection of soil. Emmanuel PETEL in close cooperation with the Directorate-General for Environment (DG ENV) is taking part in the development for a new legal framework for soil protection especially on the soil monitoring law proposal.
Marek Výborný
Minister of the Agriculture, Czech Republic
Agricultural forestry belongs to the agricultural directions that the Ministry of Agriculture aims to support. Thanks to this effort, farmers in the Czech Republic are already managing their farms in an agroforestry manner. With the help of a new subsidy, they planted 610 hectares of agroforestry systems last year, which means 61 thousand trees planted on agricultural land. For this, they will receive support of 66 million Czech crowns. Farmers can choose what they plant on their land. The subsidy is provided for 59 species of forest and fruit trees, such as oaks, lindens, rowans, apple trees, pear trees, or cherry trees. The trees divide large soil blocks, prevent erosion and soil loss in case of torrential rains. Through their foliage and roots, they increase the proportion of organic matter in the soil, changing the soil structure improves water retention in the landscape. They contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. They also help provide shelter and food for bees, butterflies, birds, and small mammals. The Ministry of Agriculture will also provide a contribution to the maintenance of newly planted trees in the coming years.
Petr Hladík
Minister of the Environment, Czech Republic
Petr Hladik has been working on environmental issues for over ten years. He was responsible for environmental issues as First Deputy Mayor of Brno. In Brno, he managed to introduce subsidies for the creation of green roofs or rainwater harvesting, both for citizens and companies. During his tenure, he also managed to adopt and implement an action plan for a carbon neutral Brno. As a result, the city started taking steps towards energy independence like installation of hundreds of roofs with photovoltaic panels, the construction of a state-of-the-art automated sorting line, the construction of a third boiler for the energy recovery of waste and the introduction of systematic collection of bio-waste and a plan to build a biogas plant. Thanks to these and other projects promoting green spaces in the city, Brno has been awarded the E.ON Energy Globe or the Smart City title. He prepared Policy Statement of the Government in this area.
Jan Grolich
South Moravian governor, Czech Republic
One of Jan Grolich's main topics during the campaign for the regional elections in 2020 was the environment, specifically projects that help retain water in the landscape, adapt the landscape to climate change and support biodiversity. After his election as governor of South Moravia, he began to appreciate projects that bring solutions to help nature across the region. Also this year, he is issuing the so-called Landscape Award. Since last December, the South Moravian regional office has been preparing the Climate Action Plan for the period 2025 to 2050 - its goal is to reduce CO2 production by 2,105 tons, prepare investment projects for renovation of buildings worth more than CZK 500 million, and increase energy production from renewable energy sources at least in volume of 5.25 GWh per year. The regional office also offers subsidy programs for green solutions, from which households and municipalities can draw.
Markéta Vaňková
Mayor of the city of Brno, Czech Republic
The host city of Brno is represented by its mayor Markéta Vaňková. Brno contributes to dealing with climate change and improving biodiversity in its territory through innovative projects. In 2019, it joined the Covenant of Mayors on Climate and Energy and approved the Brno Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP). As a significant share of emissions comes from the tertiary sector, the city decided to invite responsible Brno companies and institutions to cooperate and has already concluded a memorandum with almost 90 entities that have committed to an environmentally friendly approach in their activities. The city offers several subsidy programmes to support green projects, environmental awareness or sustainable transport. The activities mentioned above are covered by the #PrepareBrno campaign, which seeks to ensure that everyone, from the public administration to the commercial sector to the individual, really prepares for climate change.
Jan Doležal
President of the Czech Chamber of Agriculture
Jan Doležal was born on May 6, 1986 and grew up on the family farm in the village of Březinka in the Chrudim region, owned by his parents. He studied International Relations and European Studies at Masaryk University in Brno. He then moved to Prague, where he obtained an engineering degree in rural development and agriculture from the Czech University of Agriculture. After school, he joined the Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic, where he worked his way up from the position of specialist officer to the post of the Executive Secretary, representing the organisation mainly at meetings in Brussels. He was first elected to the leadership of the organisation on 16 June 2020, when he succeeded Zdeněk Jandejsek as president. He defended his position on 25 May 2023 at the 32nd Congress of the Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic in Olomouc and will lead this largest agricultural organisation, whose members produce 80 % of domestic agricultural commodities, for the next three years. He won 94.5 percent of the vote and at 37 years old is the youngest president to date.
Jaroslav Šebek
Chairperson of the Asociation of private farming
Jaroslav Šebek (1974) studied at the Faculty of Agronomy of the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague. Later he graduated from the Faculty of Law at the Pan-European University in Bratislava. He was the secretary of ASZ for almost 17 years and cooperated on the foundation of the Association in the Litoměřice region. Since 2019, he has been the chairman of the Association of Private Farming of the CR. He has a family farm in northern Bohemia, farms conventionally on 40 hectares, raises horses and poultry, offers agro-tourism opportunities and processes the produce from his farm.
Jan Mareš
rector of the Mendel University in Brno
Jan Mareš is the rector of Mendel University in Brno and has been a professor in the field of fisheries since 2014. His scientific interests focus on fish farming technologies in various production systems, fish nutrition and feeding, fish meat quality, fish hematology, and the non-production functions of ponds. His research addresses sustainable management, examining the impact of fish farming conditions and nutrition on fish meat quality. He also devotes himself to the development and optimization of recirculating fish farms and environmentally friendly and efficient fisheries. As a university representative, he advocates for changes in approaches and thinking that he perceives as crucial for sustainable life on our planet.
Martin Klimánek
Vice-rector for Strategy and Sustainability, Mendel University in Brno
Among other things, Martin Klimánek represents the university in coordination of the strategic plan, sustainable development goals and the concept of development of university enterprises – University Forest Enterprise Masaryk Forest in Křtiny and University Agriculture Enterprise in Žabčice. Academics with our enterprises collaborate on many aspects of sustainable management such as agroforestry systems. There were established long-term research areas monitoring production and ecophysiology of agricultural crops and trees depending on ecological factors, as well as research on the influence of agroforestry systems at the landscape level at university enterprises. Together, we educate university students in this area, implement further follow-up projects with partners in the South Moravian region, and organize conferences, lectures and practical workshops on the issue of agroforestry.