EU

1
EU ways of incorporating environmental
objectives and concerns into the CAP (Lecture 19)

• Most prominent environmental issues/concerns
  arising from farming
• Loss of biodiversity
• Decline in important habitats and species
• Loss of landscape diversity and quality
• Water pollution and excessive abstraction levels
• Soil erosion
• Air pollution by ammonia and greenhouse gas
  emissions
• Food safety and animal welfare concerns

2
A way to overcome these concerns-
Agri-Environmental Measures?

• designed to encourage farmers to protect and
  enhance the environment on their farmland.
• Payments are made to farmers in return for a
  service carrying out agri-environmental
  commitments that involve going beyond the
  application of usual good farming practice.
• They may be designed at national, regional or
  local level
• The measures are diverse but usually has one of
  two broad objectives
• Reducing environmental risks associated with
  modern farming
• Preserving nature and cultivated landscapes.

3
Examples of agri environmental measures

• Input reduction
• Organic farming
• Extensification of livestock
• Conversion of arable land to grassland and
  rotation measures
• Actions in areas of biodiversity
• Genetic diversity
• Farmed landscape
• Water use reduction measures

• Set aside
• Upkeep of abandoned farm land and woodland
• Maintenance of the countryside and landscape
  features
• Public access.

4
Development of agri-environment measures and
integration into CAP

• Pillar 2 measures
• Support Less Favoured Areas
• 1980s adopted in a few member states on their
  own initiative.
• 1985 Article 19, but remained optional for
  member states.
• 1992 introduced for all member states as an
  accompanying measure to the CAP reform.
• 1999 incorporated into the rural development
  regulation as part of the Agenda 2000 CAP reform.
  
• A compulsory axis in the 2007-2013 rural
  development regulation

5
2. Pillar one measures

• Setaside in the arable crops regime
• Extensification and stocking density restrictions
  in the beef and veal regime.
• Cross Compliance
• Decoupling of direct payments
• 3.Compliance with general environmental
  regulations
• Biodiversity
• Water pollution and management
• Climate change
• Biotechnology

6

• Modulation making the compulsory amount larger
  from pillar 1 to pillar 2.
• Co-funding may be a problem at times.
• Long term approach continuous design and
  implementation of schemes to achieve the intended
  outcome and to reduce transaction costs thorough
  monitoring of situation, new for CAP.