Senior experts of SEC “Biomass” Oleksandra Tryboi and Olha Haidai took part in the first progress meeting of the BIOPLAT-EU project, which took place in Albacete (Spain) on 8-9 May, 2019. Partners presented the results of the project tasks for the first 6 months and discussed plans for the next half of the year.
In particular, the partners discussed the first results of creating an open web platform that would serve as an information hub and consist of an online tool based on a geoinformation system (online map of marginal, underutilized and contaminated land (MUC lands) in Europe and Ukraine), as well as the project website, which will host all the information gathered within the project and provide free information to stakeholders interested in implementing bioenergy projects involving MUC lands.
During the meeting, the introductory video of the BIOPLAT-EU project was presented:
Also, preliminary results were presented on the collection of marginal, underutilized and contaminated land (MUC) lands data in the project countries. This data will be used to create a reference kit for further classification of MUC lands. The process of identification of MUC lands is still ongoing, so if you own information about such lands, you can mark the plot/sections of the required category on the online map or download your existing map of the plot in Shapefile formats, kml/kmz via the link: http://digs105.joanneum.at/bioplat/#
PLEASE NOTE! The BIOPLAT-EU project has started the selection of innovative bioenergy projects that will use MUC lands. Project selection will continue until October 31, 2019. For selected projects by Project experts the impact assessment, feasibility study, and financial model for funding will be developed.
Definitions of land categories used in the BIOPLAT-EU project:
Marginal lands, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) there are two different aspects for an area to be considered as marginal:
- biophysical constraints: Soil constraints (low fertility, poor drainage, shallowness, salinity), steepness of terrain, unfavourable climatic conditions; or
- socio-economic constraints: Absence of markets, difficult accessibility, restrictive land tenure, small holdings, poor infrastructure, unfavourable output/input ratios.
Underitilized lands. In the frame of BIOPLAT-EU, the term “Underutilized land” is intended to (mainly, but not solely) agricultural land that has had no signs of human activity (including grazing) over the last five years. Please observe, that fallow land, which is left to fallow for less than five consecutive years, is NOT considered as underutilized land. Note: Given that in the Land Code of Ukraine (LC of Ukraine) does not contain the term “underutilized land”, to refer to these categories of land we will use the term “low-productive land”, the definition of which is close in the LC of Ukraine and also refers to agricultural land appointment.
Contaminated lands are defined by EU regulation as “any land which appears to be in such a condition – by reasons of substances in, on or under the land – that significant harm is being caused or there is a significant possibility of such harm being caused; or pollution of controlled waters is being, or is likely to be caused”.
If you are interested in working with the Project, we ask you to:
- send your responsible person’s contacts to the following email for inclusion in the list of stakeholders and further involvement in the Project;
- provide information on whether in Your region there are lands that are not suitable for agricultural production (marginal, underutilized, degraded, contaminated, and also laylands and lands of land stock or reserve fund).
Contact person: Oleksandra Tryboi (044) 453-28-56, 067-447-33-38, tryboi@biomass.kiev.ua
Read also:
Looking for Underutilized Lands to put to the Web-Based Platform. BIOPLAT-EU project