Agriculture and forestry

Agriculture and forestry are system-relevant. They are the basic economic activity and have made societies based on the division of labour and the formation of cities and states possible in the first place. Over 80% of Germany’s surface is used for agriculture and forestry. Agriculture thus has a decisive influence on nature and the environment, on soils, animals, waters and biodiversity. With constant increases in production, agriculture has made strong population growth possible and provides the population with food.

The downside of this progress is forms of overexploitation of nature and the environment, animals and biological cycles, and even climate damage. Nevertheless, agriculture is also in crisis, as various factors have led to economic practices that are neither sustainable nor viable for the future. The direct link between land use and climate change is made clear, among other things, in the report “Climate Change and Land” by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in 2019.
Arepo supports non-governmental organisations, municipalities and decision-makers from politics and business in developing sustainable concepts for agriculture and implementing them optimally through scenarios, monitoring and evaluation studies and other advisory services.

We are particularly interested in holistic solutions that link issues of sustainable development in rural areas with food, energy production and water supply (food-energy-water nexus). These offer innovative potential especially for rural areas – from Bahía to Brandenburg.

A selection of the projects we have carried out can be found on the following pages.