Acronym: EMMA4EU

Title: INNOVATION ALLIANCE FOR TRAINING PROGRAMMES FOR DEFORESTATION-FREE SUPPLY CHAINS IN EUROPE

Call: ERASMUS-EDU-2022-PI-ALL-INNO

Duration:36 months

Coordinator: ETIFOR Srl

Total EU contribution: €  1.490.193,00

TESAF Budget: €  183.425,00

Responsible Scientific Officer/Investigator: Davide Matteo Pettenella

Research Team: Davide Matteo Pettenella, Mauro Masiero

GA: 101111729

Brief description: Deforestation is a major contributor to climate change and the expansion of agricultural land for the production of specific agroforestry products known as forest risk commodities (FRCs), represents its main direct driver in tropical countries. European Union (EU) consumption of FRCs accounts for 16% of the global embedded deforestation (an area almost the size of Luxemburg). Ensuring the sustainable supply of FRCs will help EU to achieve its climate targets and increase trust among consumers. However, deforestation is largely considered a “forestry problem” despite links to agriculture, trade and consumption patterns, all along supply chains. This is also the case in training offers of higher education and vocational training organisations (HEI&VETs), resulting in a lack of crosssectoral approaches and interdisciplinarity in core DFSC disciplines (compliance, technology and corporate social responsibility), for students and professionals. In previous years, most collective commitments made by private and public actors for deforestation-free supply chains (DFSC) have failed to invert the trend and the European Commission (EC) has recently approved the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), to ban the import of FRCs produced on land deforested after 2020. Based on these combined aspects, there is a clear need for innovative approaches to education, training and capacity building on reducing deforestation risk in supply chains of FRCs in EU. EMMA4EU will respond to these gaps by bridging the different disciplines and sectors, connecting HEI&VETs, businesses, public organisations and NGOs to launch an EU alliance that will develop innovative training solutions to create a new profession: the DFSC manager. The new skill sets and professions will combine digital, green and interdisciplinarity skills to support the transition to more sustainable DFSCs of FRCs, implementation of the EUDR, a greener and more circular economy and reaching climate-neutrality by 2050.

Website: https://www.emma4eu.eu/