The European Community has long recognized that the protection of biodiversity is a fundamental objective of the strategy for sustainable development.
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The standard, called Biodiversity Friend ® (BF) , has the objective of defining a framework of the interactions between agricultural activity and biological diversity of agrosystems.
The protocol suggests operational strategies to improve environmental quality and to decrease the impact of agricultural activities on agro-systems and their "background" biodiversity, i.e. that set of organisms (shrubs, grasses, birds, insects, etc.) which interact in various ways with the production process.
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In September of the same year, on the occasion of the Forest Festival on the Cansiglio plateau (BL), the first Biodiversity Friend ® certificate was issued by CSQA dedicated to dairy products deriving from animals reared on meadows-pastures with high levels of biodiversity.
The Cooperative of the Dairy and Agritourism Center of the Tambre-Spert-Cansiglio Plateau (Bio Cansiglio), certified organic since 1985, has developed its activity since the 1970s respecting the environment and tradition, feeding the livestock only with natural foods, grazing in the summer and in the stables in the winter, with constant attention to the conservation of the territory and biodiversity.
The "Prato-Pascoli" module of the Biodiversity Friend® standard has recognized the parameters relating to IFOAM animal welfare already envisaged by the organic certification, with a view to mutual recognition of actions envisaged by the respective standards, for the enhancement of the commitment of farms towards environmental sustainability.
In fact, at the same time the CSQA IFOAM Standard Committee , coordinated by Antonio Compagnoni, evaluated the WBA BF standard and considered it fully equivalent to the part of the IFOAM standard relating to the requirements set out in chapter two on Biological Ecosystems (see box), therefore if a company is BF certified, the verification of this part of the IFOAM standards can be avoided.
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Source: GreenPlanet.net