Within the New York Climate Week (https://www.climateweeknyc.org/), Porto Protocol, in partnership with the New York Wine & Grape Foundation (Boldly NY), will zoom into various methods the wine estates of New York State use to do all of the above. We will learn how they build and enhance and sustain Biodiversity on their lands to protect their Natural capital.
We will explore their perspectives and perceptions on biodiversity, the challenges they are experiencing, the nature-based solutions and technology they have at their disposal to service and manage their ecosystem. Most importantly, we will gain an understanding of the benefits they are achieving with their best practices.
In a multifunctional agricultural system, that has characterized our viticulture for centuries, biodiversity provides important ecological services that underpin vineyard health, productivity, quality and resilience.
In the last decades, vineyard expansion and intensification are compromising the diversity and abundance of service-providing organisms, due to landscape homogenization, loss of key structures such as stone walls and hedgerows, high mechanization (including frequent tilling), and/or overuse of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides.
The wine industry relies on nature, so we need to enhance and preserve the Eco services that nature provides, such as carbon storage, natural control of undesirable organisms, self-regulation and reliance on the natural balance that biodiversity provides.
Ultimately, it needs to bring together nature, farmers, businesses and consumers for jointly working towards a competitively sustainable future.
