A stakeholder analysis is a preliminary assessment prepared prior to the drafting (or evaluation) of a project proposal. As the terms “stake” and “holder” undoubtedly explain, the analysis assesses the view of all parties interested in or affected by the project goal and implementation. Our latest project “Environmental Blogging Boost 4 Students”, carried out with “Association Alla Ribalta”, A.P.S.” and financed by the Adige Water Catchments Consortium (grant approved by provision n. 100 of June 06, 2021), also requires a stakeholder analysis to kickoff. To reach our goal of increasing the spread of agroecological knowledge and practices in Trentino, we created a stakeholder list and assessed their view on the goal.

Agroecology: ecology in agriculture

“Agroecology” is a form of agriculture that applies ecological principles within the farming system, so that local ecosystems dynamics and enterprise development dynamics are intrinsically integrated. Agroecology is a “more than sustainable” farming type. It is type of regenerative farming because rather than to preserve, it aims to increase the environmental, social and economic resources of future generations.

Spreading agroecology in Trentino

In Trentino, sound local practices of natural resource management often lack a solid and widespread ecological knowledge base. In both farming and water management, today’s citizens are unaware of the ecological-environmental reasons behind certain actions. In agriculture, for example, few citizens understand why certain winegrowers in the Cembra valley keep hedges along their vineyard boundary adjoining busy roads or sensitive areas. Or why during spring time, many farmers in Piana Rotaliana place beehives in the inter-rows of their apple orchards. Or why farmers in Rovereto cannot cultivate on the bed and banks of the Adige River.

This knowledge cannot be restricted to only experts working in the field or students of agricultural studies. To the contrary of what many believe, a basic environmental education is easily acquired through easy logical sequences and a few simple illustrations. Above all else, a more outdoor-based lifestyle can truly incentive a general understanding of environmental dynamics. Due to Trentino’s society transition towards more urbanized and nature-disconnected lifestyles, this culture has dramatically deteriorated over the decades. Once widespread in our grandparents’ generation, it has become niche knowledge, accessed and preserved only by field experts.

The recent “Fridays For Future” environmental campaigns have revived young people’s desire to reconnect with nature. In thousands of squares around the globe, young environmental protesters shouted out their anger towards current minuscule, ineffective, and often hypocritic climate crisis actions by international politics, and their request to preserve the natural environment in order to protect their future. Yet, the environmental activism of such campaigns must be accompanied by a more solid ecological-environmental awareness and culture so that concrete and feasible solutions can be found to safeguard present ecosystems.

Increasing the agroecological knowledge and know-hows of Trentino’s citizens and competent local authorities can enhance Trentino’s natural capital. It represents both a noble goal and a necessary effort to regain that lost and widespread environmental education and culture.

A blog and a collaboration with schools of Trentino

In order to increase the spread of agroecological knowledge in Trentino, we have started publishing educational articles on agroecology. Our blog will also be opened to selected students living and/or studying in the Province of Trento. Articles will therefore be cowritten and the blog will be used as a platform that stimulates digital and cooperative forms of environmental education. The content of the articles will depend on the literature findings, the stakeholder analysis and on eventual interview with relevant stakeholders.

A stakeholder analysis to select the articles content

Each stakeholder was examined according to its influence on the project goal (i.e., direct or indirect), its position (i.e., positive, neutral, or negative) and its impact (i.e., small, medium, or significant) on it. By assigning each criterion a score, the overall stakeholder relevance on the project goal achievement was finally calculated.

With respect to the stakeholder’s influence, a score of 2 was assigned if the stakeholder had the potential to directly influence the project objective, and 1 if it influenced it indirectly. With respect to the stakeholder’s position on the project goal, a score of +1 was given if it was positive, – 1 if negative, and 0 if neutral.  With respect to the potential impact of the stakeholder on the goal pursuit and achievement, a score of 1 was assigned if it was small, 2 if medium, and 3 if significant. Finally, the overall stakeholder relevance score was calculated by multiplying the three scores.

Fig.1: extract of the stakeholder analysis to increase the spread of agroecology in Trentino. The table includes 80 stakeholders divided into 18 categories.