It is urgent to preserve our HNV farming systems, essential both for preserving biodiversity and people’s livelihood in many European rural areas. Zoom In

Last chance to save the EU’s most environmentally sustainable farmers

07-09-2010

NGOs make a strong call to reform the CAP by shifting substantial financial support to farmers who manage their land sustainably and deliver biodiversity and ecosystem services as well as healthy food, but often have a low income. Launching a vision for supporting low intensity farming in the EU, BirdLife International, Butterfly Conservation Europe, the European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism and WWF turn the spotlight on the urgent need to preserve our High Nature Value (HNV) farming systems, essential both for preserving biodiversity and people’s livelihood in many European rural areas.
 
The term HNV is used to describe broad types of farming that, because of their characteristics, are inherently high in biodiversity. These farms often are small-scale ones sustained by family labour valued below the minimum wage. HNV farmers mostly have lower incomes than non-HNV ones because they are not as intensive, hence cannot produce for the market at such low costs, and because the support provided by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is weighted against them.

Even if the importance of maintaining High Nature Value farming to halt biodiversity decline, provide public goods and ecosystem services is now recognized by the EU, it still faces enormous socio-economic challenges. Every day these environmentally sustainable farmers face stark choices between abandonment and intensification and too often end up having to sell their farms. These landscapes rich in biodiversity and culture will be lost to abandonment or intensification unless the EU starts to take its responsibility for people and biodiversity seriously.

"Maintaining HNV farming and halting biodiversity loss are inseparably connected but the EU does not have a proper strategy to tackle it yet" —Trees Robijns , EU Agriculture Policy Officer at BirdLife International

The new strategy proposed by four environmental organisations provides the EU with concrete Europe-wide tools to maintain HNV farming as a vital element to halt biodiversity decline by 2020 and spare whole rural areas in Europe from being abandoned.

“If the EU wants to meet its objectives, this is its last chance to take advantage of the current CAP reform to put in place a pan-EU payment scheme to support HNV farming” commented Guy Beaufoy, Policy Manager at EFNCP. “If it fails, HNV farming will continue to decline and disappear, along with its wealth of environmental values”.

Member States committed themselves to identify and maintain HNV farming, but there are no specific rules or quantified criteria established at EU level. It is therefore up to them to interpret the concept and to decide how best to apply it.

“Maintaining HNV farming and halting biodiversity loss are inseparably connected but the EU does not have a proper strategy to tackle it yet. Providing effective economic support to HNV farming implies a fundamental shift in the way the CAP operates, and in the way funds are distributed to European farming”, added Trees Robijns, EU Agriculture Policy Officer at BirdLife International.

“Monitoring shows that grassland butterflies have declined across Europe by nearly 70% since 1990 and similar declines have been observed in birds, wild flowers and other groups”, said Sue Collins, Policy Director of Butterfly Conservation Europe. ”It is vital to provide better support for farmers to continue farming the HNV farmland that supports biodiversity including important pollinators such as butterflies and moths”.

BirdLife International, EFNCP, WWF and BCE will launch their vision during an international conference in Romania, on 7-9 September 2010. In the new Member State HNV farming is still highly present as part of a living countryside and a vibrant rural world. In supporting HNV farming, the EU would at the same time support biodiversity and whole rural areas in Europe. 

Download the position “CAP reform 2013- last chance to stop the decline of Europe’s High Nature Value farming?” here

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