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In Europe, agricultural land use is currently characterised by intensification of farming of better land and abandonment or afforestation of poorer land. More traditional, low-intensity farming systems that support biodiversity, known as High Nature Value (HNV) farmland, continue to disappear.
With an annual budget of roughly EUR 53 billion, the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is an important factor in shaping Europe's agriculture. Its future role and objectives are currently the subject of broad debate.
The EEA technical report "Distribution and targeting of the CAP budget from a biodiversity perspective" stresses that EU spending could be better targeted to support HNV farmland, thereby boosting biodiversity. Despite recent reforms, most CAP payments still go to the most productive agricultural land and relatively little is spent to support HNV farms, which often have lower incomes.
All policy incentives to conserve HNV farmland, including a possible redesign of the CAP, have to be seen in the wider socio-economic context of agriculture and should take the delivery of ecosystem goods and services into account. These include, for example, food provision, water regulation, carbon storage and landscape amenity value.
The five case studies included in the report (addressing the Czech Republic, Estonia, Extremadura in Spain, France and the Netherlands) suggest fundamental differences in CAP implementation in EU-15 and EU-12.
The report reviews whether CAP payments are likely to help maintain High Nature Value farmland. It follows up an earlier assessment, published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and EEA in 2004.
For references, please go to https://www.eea.europa.eu/highlights/better-targeted-agricultural-spending-could-enhance-biodiversity-protection or scan the QR code.
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