3 Questions to Didier Perreol, President of SYNABIO
TF - What are the issues addressed by SYNABIO's indicators?
We can no longer deny it, a real erosion of biodiversity is underway and now threatens our global food security. Scientific studies point to a decrease of up to 80% in the populations of winged insects in Europe over the last 30 years. This collapse deprives us little by little of the ecosystem services provided by these living beings (pollination, pest control...) and calls into question the sustainability of our food systems.
Organic farmers have always integrated the respect of living beings in the heart of their practices. The ban on pesticides and synthetic fertilizers in the organic regulation has necessarily led them to reinvent their agricultural practices to maintain a good level of yield (long rotations, soil cover...). The results? On average, there are 30% more species and 50% more individuals in organic farming plots.
But today, SYNABIO has noted the lack of information and framework for companies wishing to improve their impact on biodiversity. It is this challenge that the working group has sought to address.
It is undeniable that organic agriculture constitutes a solid basis for preserving biodiversity. Nevertheless, in order to respond to the urgency and growing expectations of civil society on this issue, SYNABIO considers that it is urgent for our sector to reaffirm its role as a pioneer and to set more ambitious progress objectives, complementary to the requirements of the European organic regulation.
TF - How do SYNABIO's indicators concretely respond to these issues?
To address this issue, SYNABIO initiated a working group in 2019 composed of a dozen organic companies, strongly committed to biodiversity (Adatris; Biocoop; Biolait; Ecotone; Bodin Bio; Côteaux Nantais; Léa Nature; Les Près Rient Bio; Nutrition et Santé; Triballat-Noyal; Kaoka ).
This working group has notably led to the definition of about twenty progress indicators for the organic sectors. These indicators are located at all stages of the value chain. They concern, on the one hand, the stages of production of organic products on which the majority of impacts on biodiversity are concentrated and, on the other hand, the stages of processing and distribution of these products.
These indicators are intended for all organic companies wishing to improve their biodiversity practices. They have been selected to address the priority issues for the organic sector. However, it is recommended that each company deepens this work by identifying the priority biodiversity issues according to its own activity.
This project was conducted in consultation with a significant number of stakeholders in the organic sector. Some twenty partners and environmental NGOs were consulted.
These indicators have been published at the end of April in the form of an educational guidebook for all companies in the sector and will be the subject of a training course in September 2021.
TF - What would be the ideal scenario for the development of SYNABIO indicators?
SYNABIO's ambition is to deploy these progress indicators to all companies in the sector, but also to open a real discussion space with its partners upstream and downstream of the organic sector.
SYNABIO would also like to raise awareness among public authorities on the issue of financing these environmentally friendly sectors so that operators do not have to bear all the costs.
In order to reach them, we would like to be able to communicate about this project with NGOs to make them understand the problems of companies on the subject, so that they can relay this message to the general public and politicians.
Those 3 questions were written following the Transition Forum Call for Expressions of Interest. Synabio’s indicators are part of the top 20 selected projects.
