Europe’s rural land faces many competing demands for the provision of food, energy and timber, as well as environmental and cultural services.
There is scarcely any true wilderness left in the EU, so the ways in which land is managed affects the quality of the environment as well as the character and social fabric of much of rural Europe.
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) continues to be a major driver of land use and management decisions. Other sectoral policies, such as those promoting renewable energy, protecting biodiversity and regulating water quality and usage have an important influence too.
IEEP seeks to inform and influence the development of the key EU policies that affect the sustainable use of rural land and to encourage the integration of environmental priorities into these policies.
We provide independent policy research, analysis and advice focussing on ways in which farming and forestry can help to protect Europe’s natural resources and the wide range of environmental goods and services which they support.
Highlights
Under the European Green Deal, the EU has pledged to minimise its contribution to deforestation and forest degradation around the world and to promote the consumption of goods from deforestation-free supply chains. But what will that mean in practice?
A new set of three papers from IEEP explores the rational and policy aspects of rural land use transformation in the EU.
IEEP has submitted feedback to the European Commission’s public consultation on the EU classification system for green finance, with a focus on mitigation in the agriculture, forestry and bioenergy sector.
This paper presents the project’s policy recommendations and ‘toolkit’ to help policymakers, researchers and land managers better monitor and assess soils at local, regional and continental scales.
IEEP, Wageningen University & Research and Navigant held a workshop on 18 November to explore where crops for non-food purposes could be grown in Europe in the future. Current policy seeks to steer these crops to abandoned or degraded land, but the workshop looked at how much is available, where it is and how suitable this land might be in practice.
This webinar will look at some of the efforts being undertaken in Canada and the EU when it comes to agriculture and sustainability.
This policy brief examines the way that soil is incorporated into the EU climate policy architecture and gives recommendations for enhancing its position in that architecture.
A preliminary assessment by IEEP shows that EU Agriculture Ministers and the European Parliament have failed to address six essential areas for keeping the green ambition of the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) alive.
This briefing paper provides an overview of the current technical and scientific knowledge and additional research needs for the achievement of pesticides and fertiliser reduction objectives under the Green Deal.
This briefing paper examines the returns on investment in EU agricultural research and innovation (R&I), outlining the multi-faceted societal, economic, and environmental benefits as well as the current limitations of measuring returns.
As the EU decision-makers argue over the direction for the urgently needed transition in the livestock sector, how can they align the most relevant policies with the 'Farm to Fork' objectives?
This report provides input to the ongoing development of the EU Sustainable Finance Taxonomy with a particular focus on the biodiversity and ecosystem objective.
The environmental and climate ambition of the future CAP is increasingly under threat as the European Parliament and AGRIFISH Council finalise their positions on the legal texts.
This report outlines the environmental and welfare challenges, opportunities, and potential consequences of ending the use of cages in the production of hens, pigs, and rabbits in the EU.
This paper examines the role that the post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy can play in the transformation towards more sustainable and resilient agri-food systems in the EU
To help shape the future of public agricultural research and innovation in the EU, IEEP has created a dialogue platform bringing together key stakeholders from diverse sectors and interest groups
The European Commission is organising its 2nd Carbon Farming Roundtable on 23-24 September to present a study conducted by IEEP and partners.
The Horizon Europe mission on Soil Health and Food has set the ambitious target for 75% of soils in the EU to be healthy – within just 10 years. Here are five recommendations for achieving this.
The first in a series of three, this paper focuses on the rationale for the prioritisation of environment and climate goods and services from EU rural land, and gives some insight into how they might be incentivised.
The European Commission has published its long-awaited strategy on food and farming that sets out the EU’s long-term goals and direction of travel to 2030 for the agri-food sector. The Strategy is a key and necessary element of the European Green Deal and together with the new EU Biodiversity Strategy comes at an important moment.
