Scenario lab - Couesnon basin

Presentation of the Scenario Lab of Couesnon Basin in the Zone Atelier Armorique (ZAAr)

This scenario lab is a region dominated by intensive dairy farming systems, which currently face a number of challenges: reducing their GHG emissions, limiting their environmental impacts (nutrient and ammonia leakage), and improving conservation of bocage landscapes, grasslands, and biodiversity in agricultural habitats. Historically, research at ZAAr has focused on how the agroecological transition of these farming systems could respond to the various concerns of chambers of agriculture, agricultural cooperatives, farmers, national agencies, and regional governments.

From a thematic perspective, this scenario lab will use modelling and integrated scenario assessment to explore different strategies for achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. The first question to be addressed: would it be helpful to give a more prominent role to grazing within livestock systems, namely by restructuring farmlands according to a locally and collectively defined design (amicable land swaps or government-mediated agricultural, forestry, and environmental land management [AFAFE])? This work will be handled by LETG and LAE.

Second, what would be the effects of agroecological livestock systems designed using scientific knowledge and local expertise on the relationships between cropping and livestock systems and the circular nature of biogeochemical fluxes and ecosystem services? This work will be performed by SAS, BAGAP, and LAE. From a methodological perspective, the scenario lab will help define linkages between different modelling tools, which will make it easier to guide stakeholders as they design and assess agricultural transition scenarios.

Three tools will be used: the FORESCEM model (LETG, EA CEDETE), which simulates land-use changes; the CAPFARM model (BAGAP), which simulates different crop rotations on farms and within regions territories given agricultural and spatial constraints; and the MAELIA platform (LAE). This scenario lab will apply and test the livestock systems module and environmental biorefinery module (WP1).