Highlights
A new evaluation of the Common Agriculture Policy’s Pillar 1 greening measures for the European Commission, led by IEEP on behalf of Alliance Environnement, found that overall the greening measures have led to only small changes in management practices, except in a few specific areas.
Pollinator insects are essential to ecosystems and agriculture, but their populations are in decline. How can this issue be tackled in Europe? Your chance to reply.
In a published letter to The Guardian, IEEP's Alan Buckwell argues it is incorrect to describe payments to farmers who manage land for biodiversity and the ecosystem services it provides as "subsidies".
Join PEGASUS stakeholders to discuss delivering environmental and social benefits from agriculture and forestry in a changing policy context.
The Final Conference of the PEGASUS project will take place in Brussels on Wednesday, 7 February 2018 (9:00-17:00). The event will summarise of the results of over 3 years of research on concrete ways to enhance the provision of public goods and ecosystem services by agriculture and forestry, and what this means for policy and practice.
Registration is available here.
Ecological Focus Areas are intended to safeguard and improve biodiversity on arable farms in the EU. What evidence is there that they are actually delivering biodiversity on farmland?
Ecological Focus Areas are intended to safeguard and improve biodiversity on arable farms in the EU. This IEEP study for EEB and BirdLife examined the evidence for potential biodiversity impacts on farmland, taking into account how the areas are being managed.
Adherence to effective and workable sustainability criteria is an essential requirement when using public support to incentivise advanced alternative fuels.
Understanding the consequences of increased biomass demand for energy on the environment is central to the development of future policy on renewable energy in Europe. This study seeks to help answer this need by modelling different levels of biomass demand for energy and the consequences for land use and forest based industries.
A significant injection of money was agreed for ‘green’ farming practices under the recent CAP reform. This report examines the environmental impact these measures are likely to have on the ground and concludes that Member States’ implementation choices appear to have much diminished the chances of the greening measures delivering significant additional environmental benefits.
Waste resources have the potential to provide a core component of developing bio-economies across the globe. A new IEEP report reviews how waste has been incorporated into existing bio-economy strategies, and the conditions that have enabled this.
This study reviews Member States’ estimates of the extent of HNV farmland and use of RDP measures and the CMEF indicators, then identifies future priorities for CAP support for HNV farming and discusses the support opportunities under the reformed CAP. It offers detailed new evidence about the combined effect of Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 CAP payments on the economic and environmental viability of a typical HNV farming system in three Member States.
Member States need to make the most of the opportunities under the new Common Agricultural Policy if the declines in HNV farming, critical for meeting our 2020 biodiversity targets, are to be halted.
How much progress is Scotland making on the environmental agenda? Can Scotland fulfill its growing aspirations to become an environmental front runner in Europe? This new report explores these questions in relation to the farmed environment, Marine Protection Areas and climate mitigation.
Can sustainable management of natural resources in Europe’s agricultural sector contribute to sustainable water use? What other sectors have a role to play in significantly improving water use across Europe and what are the good practices and tools that are available? A new report for the European Parliament explores these questions.
The greening of the CAP hangs in the balance in the final negotiations; a synthesis of key issues and requirements.
This study shows how more can be done to firstly avoid and minimize detrimental impacts of EU funding on biodiversity, and secondly to increase biodiversity benefits.
This briefing explores the issue of double funding in relation to the CAP reform debate and considers the implications for delivering added value for the environment.
Biochar has the potential to both mitigate greenhouse gases, and to act as an adaptation measure in terms of responding to the impacts of climate change. Based on its compatibility with the appropriate soil properties, it could increase the resilience of soil to erosion.
The CAP could, and should, be primarily to assist EU agriculture to become more internationally competitive and sustainable and to achieve this by innovation. It already has many instruments to do this, and the reforms could further assist. However the resources deployed could be far better used.
What is the relationship between the management of agricultural land and biodiversity? To what extent are the EU’s biodiversity goals addressed through the CAP?
