Event - "The place of High Nature Value Farming in the Common Agricultural Policy" - 28 June 2011

(c) Catherine Juckler Zoom In

28 June 2011, the European Parliament, Brussels.

Hosted by SÓGOR Csaba (MEP), George LYON (MEP) and Iratxe GARCÍA PÉREZ (MEP)

Speakers included: Mr Barna Tanczos, the Romanian State Secretary for Agriculture; Mr Laszlo Demeter from the Pogány-havas Association; Mr Paul Walton from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (BirdLife UK); and Mr Guy Beaufoy from the European Forum for Nature Conservation and Pastoralism.

High Nature Value Farming

High Nature Value Farming (HNV) describes types of farming that are inherently rich in biodiversity. Typically, these are low-intensity farming systems. Today the value of HNV farming is recognised for the multiple environmental goods that such systems produce. But HNV farming faces enormous challenges especially in socio-economic viability. As intensive farming expands and increases its yields, and as incomes rises in the wider economy, it becomes harder to earn a living from HNV farming. Across vast areas of the EU’s most fragile rural landscapes, farmers face stark choices between abandonment and intensification. Landscapes rich in biodiversity and culture, beneficial for soil conservation and climate change, and resistant to forest fires, are being lost to scrub, dense forest or more intensive use, such as large irrigated monocultures.

HNV farms generally have lower net incomes than non-HNV farms, and often have negative net incomes, sometimes even with CAP support. In such cases, farms are sustained by family farm labour that is valued below the minimum wage. Despite these obvious needs, HNV farms tend to receive lower levels of support from the CAP than non-HNV farms, especially from Pillar 1. Yet small-scale farming systems should be valued for their true multi-functionality – providing local employment and subsistence that is resilient to economic downturns, supplying local markets with local produce with a minimal carbon footprint, as well as the public goods such as biodiversity and culturally valued landscapes. As the EU struggles to reform the CAP, there is a last opportunity to redress years of bias that favoured intensive farming. The CAP should be remodelled to better support the provision of environmental goods including better support for low-intensity, High Nature Value farming.

BirdLife therefore propose the creation of an EU-wide strategy for supporting HNV farming. This should consist of:

• A targeted support payment for HNV farming under Pillar 1.
• RDP investment aids for HNV farming at higher rates than other farming practices
• Targeted agri-environment schemes for pursuing specific objectives and promoting certain practices.
• Local projects that work pro-actively with HNV farmers mainstreamed into rural development policy, e.g. as a special type of LEADER project for HNV farming.
• Development of consistent EU model of LPIS that includes biodiversity features such as semi-natural grasslands, and of IACS to establish a consistent approach to recording numbers of all grazing livestock.
• Development of consistent EU rules to ensure that scrubby and woody grazing land is included in permanent pasture statistics, and to ensure eligibility for CAP payments.
• Improved cross-compliance protection for permanent grassland and for biodiversity features, complemented by targeted HNV support payments.
• Adaptation of administrative and regulatory mechanisms, such as veterinary visits and controls on livestock movements, to HNV farming conditions.

Related publications:

• High Nature Value Farming – How diversity in Europe’s farm systems delivers for biodiversity, European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism, RSPB, BirdLife International European Division, 2011.

• CAP reform 2013 - Last chance to stop the decline of Europe’s High Nature Value farming? European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism, BirdLife International European Division, Butterfly Conservation Europe, WWF European Policy Office.

More information

• Poster and Agenda
  
  

• Speakers' powerpoint presentations: 

          - Mr Barna Tanczos
          - Mr Laszlo Demeter
          - Mr Paul Walton (will be available shortly)
          - Mr Guy Beaufoy

• Organisations participating to the Conference:

The European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism (EFNCP) has developed as a European network of scientists, conservationists and policy makers which interacts with farmers, land managers and agricultural and environmental ministries.

The Pagan Snow Cap association (Pogány-Havas microregion Association) is composed of local governments, NGOs and businesses operating in the Pogány-Havas region in Romania. The mission of the association is to improve the quality of life of locals by respecting natural values and traditions.

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (BirdLife in the UK) speaks out for birds and wildlife, tackling the problems that threaten our environment. It is the largest wildlife conservation organisation in Europe with over one million members.

Birdlife Europe