Latest from key partners

Michael Dower Award for Rural Resilience – Nominate A Rural Action-Taker Today!

Michael Dower (1937-2022) has inspired rural Europe for decades. Co-founder of the European AgriCultural Convention (EAC), which later became ARC2020, he was a phenomenal agent of change.  Launching today, the Michael Dower Award for Rural Resilience will showcase the efforts of local communities and individuals who are taking action to make rural Europe a better place to live. […]

Latest from EU Member States

Feeding Ourselves 2023 – Building Bridges for Rural Resilience

ARC2020’s Rural Resilience project explores the possibilities for Europe’s territories to become more resilient from the ground up, so we were keen to visit Ireland in March 2023 to support the Feeding Ourselves gathering in Cloughjordan Ecovillage. Alison Brogan shares the rich learnings for rural infrastructure gleaned from this weekend in the Irish midlands.  […]

Latest from EU Member States

Compassion for Future at Latvian Rural Communities Parliament

Mid-June 2023 the 6th Latvian Rural Communities Parliament took place in the town of Ērgļi. ARC President Hannes Lorenzen was asked to share his views on the past, the challenges of today, and ideas for the future. In this excerpt from the speech he gave, Hannes reflects on how three key ideas – Intergenerational Responsibility, Reduction (or Sufficiency) and Rural Resilience – can frame action for radical change […]

Latest from EU Member States

Rural Resilience | A Collective Adventure

It’s a long road to building a new way of imagining life in the countryside. We are pleased to share with you ARC2020’s findings from the field in France: “Nos Campagnes en Résilience: Collective Reflections within Socio-Ecological Transition, 2020-2022” . Here we report on the journey so far for the people involved in this project, with an extract from the first chapter of the report: A Collective Adventure. By the “Nos Campagnes en Résilience” team. […]

Latest from EU Member States

Feeding Ourselves 2023 – Diversified Diversification in Action

It’s good to be specific. It’s also good to be diverse. To be mixed and sometimes messy, to embed in a multiverse, a pluriverse, of things and people, of places and actions, of enabling infrastructure and strategic purpose. When it comes to making vibrant rural spaces, within our social and planetary boundaries, while living well, together…there’s a lot to be said for diversity – in its many, myriad forms. Welcome to Feeding Ourselves 2023 – a diversity love story. Words by Oliver Moore.  […]

Latest from EU Member States

Feeding Ourselves 2023 | Fertile Ground for System Change

Another rural is possible! ARC2020 and friends were in Cloughjordan Ecovillage, Ireland on March 25-26 for the annual Feeding Ourselves gathering, which takes food and farming as an entry point for moving towards fairer, more caring communities. What are the ingredients to cook up transformative system change? How can we build bridges between islands of practice? Why do we need to keep talking about gender? Louise Kelleher gives us a taste of conversations and connections at Feeding Ourselves 2023. […]

Latest from key partners

Rural Europe Takes Action | The Sámi Environmental Programme

From the Sámi perspective, all matters are environmental matters. The Sámi Environmental Programme is a holistic framework with a long-term, decolonised perspective on sustainability and Indigenous culture. Josefina Skerk, former Vice President of the Sámi Parliament, shares powerful perspectives on life, land and climate justice in a conversation originally published in “Rural Europe Takes Action – No more business as usual”, the policy guide launched by ARC2020 and Forum Synergies in June 2022. […]

Latest from Brussels

Future of Europe at European Rural Parliament – Sufficiency, Integrated Policy, & Rural Action

At the European Rural Parliament, ongoing in Kielce, Poland, the Future of Europe takes centre stage today. ARC2020 president Hannes Lorenzen hosted a panel on this topic, with Marion Eckardt (ELARD), Katrina Idu (Forum Synergies) Normunds Popens (European Commission), Radim Sršeň European Committee of the Regions, Goran Šoster (PREPARE) and Toma Šutić (European Commission). […]

Latest from the ARC network

Rural Europe Takes Action | A Shared Space for Food Transition

This extract from “Rural Europe Takes Action – No more business as usual” tells the story of the Sustainable Food Consortium, a group of food activists who came together in Redon, France. We hear in particular about the political, bureaucratic and agro-industrial barriers the Consortium faced, and draw some learnings from this.  […]