Accompanying ecological research on the greening of the Common Agricultural Policy

With the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, the European Commission decided upon a more environmental-friendly, “greener” first pillar. The effectiveness of the greening measures for nature conservation and environmental protection, however, is discussed controversially. In various projects we therefore pursue the question of the effectiveness.

Background and Objective

Significant species decline in agricultural landscapes, continuing high nutrient inputs in soils and waters as well as European and global stipulations for biodiversity protection require an agriculture that focuses more on ecological aspects. To address these needs the European Commission introduced a “greening” through the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) that should strengthen the ecological sustainability of agriculture. Since 1 January 2015, a part of the direct payments of the first pillar is linked to farming practices promoting climate and environmental protection with three measures:

• Crop diversification: Most farms with more than 30ha arable land have to cultivate at least three crops. The major crop must not exceed 75% of the area and the share of the other two crops must cover at least 5% of area each. Farms with 10 to 30ha arable land must cultivate at least two crops, whereas the major crop must not cover more than 75% of the area.
• Preservation of permanent grassland: Permanent grassland reported as a flora-fauna habitat (FFH) area is labeled as environmentally sensitive grassland and is subject to a prohibition of conversion and ploughing. Permanent grassland that is not declared as environmentally sensitive can be converted exclusively with authorization. Normally, an authorization is only given when permanent grassland is newly established to the same extent at another place in the same region and when the share of permanent grassland of the region declined by no more than 5% between 2012 and 2015.
• Declaration of ecological focus areas on arable land: Farms with more than 15ha arable land must declare 5% of their cropland as an ecological focus area. Different EFA types can be chosen, some of them allowing agricultural usage (e.g., short rotation coppice, catch crops) and some do not (e.g., fallow land, landscape elements).

Under certain conditions farms are excluded from greening, for example organic farms. Currently, there is a controversial discussion on the ecological effectiveness of EFA. It is also disputed whether the high administration and monitoring effort of those measures is proportionate. A mid-term evaluation of the European Commission in 2017 should give information on the effectiveness of the measures on the preservation of biological diversity as well as the protection of water, climate and soil. Based on the mid-term evaluation, changes in the greening policy are possible from 2018 onwards.

Target Group

Ministries of agriculture and environment, farmers, consultants, official nature conservation, agricultural administration, European Commission

Approach

At the Thünen Institute of Rural Studies, there are several projects dealing with the effects of the greening on nature protection (see Links and Downloads). Their results should be used to generate practical recommendations for the evaluation of the CAP reform in 2017.

Data and Methods

In the projects we especially analyze operational data from the federal states to find out more about the selection, implementation and ecological effects of the greening measures. The different focuses of the projects cover all three fields of the greening measures, supporting a greater contribution to ecology through agriculture in the future.

Our Research Questions

How are the new greening regulation implemented by farmers and what influences their decisions?

What is the additional conservation value of the greening measures implemented under the current conditions?

How could the benefit of the greening be enhanced?

How could economically favorable options for farmers look that create benefits for nature protection at the same time?

Preliminary Results

The project should show how, in addition to political guidelines, operation- and region-specific factors influence the choice and implementation of EFA and their ecological effectiveness. First results are expected by the beginning of 2016.

Links and Downloads

Further projects are related to this roof project:

• Nature conservation in ecological focus areas (OEVForsch; BfN, 06/2015-12/2016)
• Evaluation of the CAP from an environmental protection point of view (GAPEval; UBA, 09/2015-08/2017)
• Effects of the new GAP framework on the grassland related biodiversity (GAPGRÜN; BfN, 11/2015-03/2018)
• Evaluation of the CAP reform from the point of view of environmental protection by means of a adatabase analysis of IACS data of the federal staets (GAPEval2; UBA, 12/2017-12/2019)
• Nature conservation development in Ecological Focus Areas - Effects on biodiversity and agricultural practice

Handbook on the optimatization of ecological focus areas with respect to biodiversity goals (German only)

Thünen-Contact

• Röder, Norbert Institute of Rural Studies

Involved Thünen-Partners

• Ackermann, Andrea Institute of Rural Studies
• Baum, Sarah Institute of Rural Studies
• Osterburg, Bernhard Coordination Units Climate and Soil
• Rudolph, Sebastian Institute of Rural Studies
• Schmidt, Thomas Institute of Rural Studies

Duration

4.2015 - 7.2020

More Information

Projekt type:
Funding program: BMUB - Umweltforschungsplan
Project status: ongoing

Results 16 - 20 of 29

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Results 16 - 20 of 29

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