To every action corresponds a score
Each action is evaluated by a score; the farm must get a minimum score of 60 out of 100 to be certified. To maintain the certification the farmer must annually increase the score. No other improvement of biodiversity will be required after reaching a score of 80/100 points. When the farm reaches the score of 80/100, the certification audit will be biannual instead of annual.
In 2010 “Biodiversity Friend” obtained the patronage of the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies of Italy. The brand “Biodiversity Friend” is exclusive property of the WBA and has been registered as an international trademark in Italy, European Union and China by the World Intellectually Property Organization of Madrid and in U.S.A. by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Scheda punteggi Biodiversity Friend (PDF)
Harmonization between production and conservation
Until now the conservation policies were not working effectively because they have not been able to involve in a synergistic way the world of production. On the contrary, production and conservation came often into conflict each other, causing misunderstandings, radicalization of the positions and, unfortunately, environmental crisis of planetary dimensions. “Biodiversity Friend”, substantially, has as main goal the harmonization between production and conservation, the only way to truly sustainable development.
Environmental improvement, synonymous with quality of life
The expected effects in terms of environmental improvement are enormous and, potentially, can be related to all the human activities. An environment rich in biodiversity can play a key role in maintaining the ecological balance, offering products of quality, with the best organoleptic properties. Consequently, better environmental and food quality can have positive effects on the sanitary state of the people: it has been scientifically demonstrated that many illnesses are directly related to environmental pollution and poor quality food.
Beneficial effects on agritourism
The environmental quality improvement can have beneficial effects also on the rural farmhouse development, for a greater attention by the clients/consumers towards plain areas, traditionally few considered from a tourist point of view. The diffusion in the agricultural landscape of hedges and woods, the most attention to the quality of air, water and soil, the cultivation of old varieties and animal races, will allow an increase of the agricultural landscape quality that, finally, for the environmental quality can be compared to the hill and mountain areas. The agricultural lands can become again the expression of the rural tradition, of its economic, social and cultural history.
Increasingly concerned consumers
Even in economic terms the expected results are of considerable interest. Today, most consumers are able to recognize the quality of products on the basis of multiple indicators and to make ethical choices, careful to protect the environment and the people involved in the production process. Increasingly consumers are demanding information that go beyond the simple features of the product, but they tend to share the responsibility for the choices of the farms who, in turn, are increasingly concerned about the communication of their responsibility towards the quality of the environment in which they operate. This is a growing tendency, especially in the primary sector, where the demand of quality products is increasing respect to the great production of the industrial agriculture.
Warranty of sustainable productive models
For a consumer, to buy a product with the brand “Biodiversity Friend” means having scientifically verified guarantees that the product comes from agrosystems with a high degree of naturalness and has been achieved through low-impact production processes. Consequently, the product “Biodiversity Friend” will be identified as a healthy product, the result of a process based on the principles of sustainability. Such a production model, based on the enhancement of local productions, will restore market balance in a perspective of greater equity to both the producers and the consumers. In fact, the farmers expect to have higher revenues due to a more rational use of resources and an increase in value of products obtained by environmental conservation processes; on the other hand, consumers are expected to have savings because, properly informed, can take advantage of a distribution network closer to the source, in accordance to the seasonality of production.
The Biodiversity Friend Checklist may be required by the farms interested in certification to the following address: info@biodiversityassociation.org