Pan-European projects
Arca Deli Award
The Arca Deli® Award is a prestigious award for delicacies and/or innovative services offered by keepers and breeders of ancient livestock breeds or crops/plant varieties.
The Arca-Deli® Award has been annual since 2011 by SAVE Foundation.. Award-winning products and services can be marked with the Arca-Deli® label – with the year of the award ceremony.
Products and services must meet the following conditions:
- The product or service (PoS) must come from a farm that is either registered in the European Arche network “Arca-Net” or the farm must have received express consent from a partner organization of the SAVE Foundation.
- PoS must serve the in-situ / on-farm conservation of the autochthonous breed or variety
- PoS must be qualitatively above the average
- PoS must be able to be recommended as a model or example of good practice
Submission:
Products and/or services may be submitted to the SAVE Foundation Judging Committee once a year. An announcement regarding submission will be published in good time before the SAVE Foundation's annual meeting. Employees of the SAVE Foundation are excluded from participation. A product can only be submitted once for the Arca-Deli Award; re-application in subsequent years is not possible.
Judging:
The Arca-Deli awards are given by the Board of Directors of SAVE Foundation, following the recommendations of a judging committee. The decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
Awards:
A certificate is issued for each awarded product/service and the product/service is entitled to the Arca-Deli® Logo with the year of the award. The price is to be used exclusively for the relevant product and not related to the production site. You can find already excellent products and services here: Arca-Deli®Awards chronicle
A short description of the Arca Deli Awards is mentioned in a Flyer „Labelling diversity in Europe: 3 examples“ of the H2020 project DYNAVERSITY
Arca Deli Award 2024
Applications for the Arca-Deli Award 2024 are now possible. Please fill out the following form (in German or English) and send it to office@save-foundation.net.
Arca-Deli Award 2024 – application form
Arca-Deli Award 2024 – application form
Product samples can be brought to the SAVE Annual Meeting (Turin, Italy) or sent to the organizer in Italy. You will receive detailed information after we receive your application. Please send your product samples CAN'T to the SAVE Foundation project office or the network office.
IMAGE – Innovative Management of Animal Genetic Resources
“Innovative Management of Animal Genetic Resources” (acronym IMAGE) was a project funded by the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program of the European Union.
It started on March 1st, 2016 for four years and united 28 partners, including three SMEs, three NGOs, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), nine research institutions, 11 higher education and research institutions, and INRA Transfert, a subsidiary of INRA, the co-ordinating partner. 13 EU countries have been involved, together with Switzerland and four non-European countries: Argentina, Colombia, Egypt and Morocco.
The ultimate goal of the project is to demonstrate the benefits brought by gene banks to the development of more sustainable livestock farming systems.
The project is organized in six research work packages (WP), one dissemination WP and the management WP.
“Raising awareness about the value of animal gene banks will contribute to popularizing them in the society as a whole, since they represent both a heritage and a resource for the future.”
SAVE was involved in the work package “Multi actor participation and knowledge exchange”. The contribution of WP1 to this general objective was to understand and formalize the expectations of stakeholders regarding gene banks and to identify gaps or needs. Thus, IMAGE WP1 addressed the needs for communication and knowledge exchange between all stakeholders regarding the management of animal genetic resources.
In this frame SAVE organized together with partners four so called Dialogue Forum: The IMAGE Dialogue Forum were run as a platform to involve all stakeholders in the discussion about the future of genetic management of farm animals. This included scientists, government officials, NGOs and industry representatives, as well as breeding/farmer's associations. The annual meetings took place in association with big scientific conferences like EAAP and ERFP). Top pieces of the meetings were:
1. Farm animal gene banks: Conservation priorities and future perspectives
2. Sanitary Regulations: Possibilities and hindrances for the exchange of gene bank material for breeding and science”
3. Economics of Conservation – View and experiences
4. ABS rules in the EU
Donkey Breeds in Europe
Donkey keeping in Europe has undergone a fundamental change. In South and Southeast Europe donkeys as „Tractor of the common man“ are not highly valued. The stock numbers in the southern European countries are falling dramatically. For example the stock numbers fall continuously in Greece – despite the import of donkeys for milking in recent times. In Northern and Central Europe the hobby keeping increases: The donkey has in some places become a status symbol. This does hardly keep the decline in stock numbers in Europe because the increase in the North is less than the loss in the South. Furthermore except a few special breeds like the Poitou Donkey breeding hardly takes place. Especially in the North little emphasis is placed on selection.The Domestic donkey,its requirements and needs are today barely familiar.Misunderstandings and prejudices continue to be mentioned about this intelligent, durable and versatile Livestock. Even among the veterinaries knowledge of the treatment of donkeys is diminishing. Thus, barely veterinary books for the treatment of donkeys exist. Donkeys are not just horses with long ears, they show important differences like for example one lumbar less than a horse, their blood cells are larger, but less than in horses. In general donkeys are far too less researched. There are still many surprises to discover behind the long eared bats. Therefore, SAVE Foundation has set up a database on the occurrence and use of donkey breeds in Europe and collected a lot of additional information:
The ecological value of feral livestock populations in Europe
In many parts of Europe, horses, cattle, goats and sheep have been left to themselves – sometimes due to migration away from war zones or disadvantaged rural areas. These feral or semi-feral populations have often been more or less ignored. Unless, of course, they disturb forestry or agriculture through disease, damage, cross-breeding, fodder or water competition. Nature protection bodies view these populations ambivalently: on the one hand, these livestock populations have a massive impact on the eco-system balance, on the other hand they are put to use as semi-feral populations in the conservation of natural and park landscapes.
The interaction between the management of indigenous livestock breeds and the traditional agro-ecosystems are of great importance to conservation of both types of biodiversity – the wild and the domesticated.
Up to now there has been no overview of the European feral and semi-feral livestock populations. With the project “The Ecological Value of Feral Populations in Europe” SAVE Foundation addresses this issue and the problems surrounding the often forgotten feral and semi-feral populations. The project aims to collect data and information about the occurrence of feral breeds and varieties of livestock, to network key persons from the In Situ – On Farm conservation work as well as nature protection organisations and to develop plans for “best management”. In an empiric study SAVE Foundation worked out an overview of free ranging livestock populations in Europe, impulses and ways to preserve our unique traditional cultural landscape and at the same time to preserve locally adapted traditional livestock breeds
