The rise of agricultural parks as farmland governance strategy in Flanders, Belgium.

In Europe the concept of agricultural park or 'agropark' has been mobilized for various sus-tainability reasons such as biodiversity conser-vation, economic diversification, climate change mitigation and the preservation of open space. An agropark can be defined as a network of ac-tors in a peri-urban area with a specific identity where multifunctional agriculture produces food and delivers other social services in close relation to the city.

Though each agropark is site- and context-spe-cific, the numerous examples throughout Eu-rope demonstrate the strategic potentials of the concept to deal with social, agricultural and spa-tial challenges of open space and farmland preservation in and around our cities. Despite the dense urban fabric and the high pressure on open space, Flanders (Belgium) wasn’t ac-quainted with the concept until the start of a government induced program ‘Pilot projects on a productive landscape’ (PPPL) in 2014. In this paper we explore the journey of the agropark from theoretical concept to actual practice in Flanders, as well as some endeavours to upscale a first example.