The devil is in the details when it comes to the EU\u2019s farming subsidy programme\u2019s potential to halt biodiversity loss, according to German researchers, who warn, however, that green ambitions may fail to pack a punch.<\/p>\n
Ahead of this week\u2019s negotiations on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform, a team of researchers from several German institutes presented their findings on how to make the proposed environmental measures in the CAP \u2013 the so-called Green Architecture \u2013 more effective for biodiversity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether or not the Green Architecture can effectively protect and promote biological diversity will strongly depend on the details \u2013 that is, how much of a punch the instruments actually have,\u201d biodiversity and environment researcher Guy Pe\u2019er, lead author of the study, told a conference.<\/p>\n
The study was conducted in cooperation with the European Commission.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the conference, Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski welcomed the report.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith regard to the CAP and biodiversity, no one would say that our work is done,\u201d he said during his opening speech, stressing that the CAP must make an \u201ceffective and efficient contribution to overall sustainability \u2013 environmental, economic, and social\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, he also pointed out that in some regions, farmers going out of business and leaving the land barren could be as much of a threat to biodiversity as intensive farming practices.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe CAP must ensure that farmers can make a living from working in harmony with nature,\u201d the Commissioner said.<\/p>\n
This week, the European Parliament, the Council of Ministers representing the EU27, and the Commission are negotiating on how the EU\u2019s farming subsidies will be designed in the future, as the trilogue on the post-2020 CAP enters its final stretch.
\nCAP crunch time: EU’s farming subsidies reform talks as they happen<\/p>\n
On this page, you will be able to follow EURACTIV\u2019s live coverage of the battle for the fate of the next EU farming subsidies programme, set to play out next week.<\/p>\n
In terms of biodiversity, the measures that are being discussed include enhanced conditionality standards on animal welfare and the environment that farmers will have to meet in order to receive CAP payments.<\/p>\n
Moreover, so-called \u201ceco-schemes\u201d, intended to link a part of direct payments to farmers to additional environmental measures, are set to leave substantial leeway to member states in defining what counts as environmentally friendly farming practices<\/p>\n
The researchers maintain that while these measures could help promote biodiversity, this is only possible if they are diligently designed and implemented, and if the CAP takes a results-based approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cEco-schemes can become a very effective instrument. (\u2026) But whether this would work out depends on whether the money will be spent on effective measures,\u201d said Guy Pe\u2019er.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Wojciechowksi backed the scientists\u2019 call for a results-based approach to biodiversity measures.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis must be a reality, not just a promise. That means that we must have good indicators and strong systems of monitoring,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The Commissioner also pointed out that measures such as the eco-schemes would leave a lot of flexibility to member states.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven when we have a political agreement in the trilogue, the work on the CAP\u2019s future will not stop,\u201d he explained, saying it would be important to ensure that national policies contribute to delivering on biodiversity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must be ambitious in terms of minimum required levels of spending on the environment and climate within the CAP strategy plans,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The scientists, too, stressed the central role that EU countries will play in the new CAP, especially when it comes to the design of eco-schemes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt now depends on whether member states really want to promote nature conservation,\u201d said Sebastian Lakner, co-author of the study.<\/p>\n
For Lakner, some of the measures that member states are currently planning in order to boost environmentally-friendly farming practices do not necessarily directly help biodiversity.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor example, the measure \u2018Precision Farming\u2019 achieves positive environmental effects, but is de facto technology support for large farms that are actually using this technology for economic reasons,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The devil is in the details when it comes to the EU\u2019s farming subsidy programme\u2019s potential to halt biodiversity loss, according to German researchers, who warn, however, that green ambitions may fail to pack a punch. Ahead of this week\u2019s negotiations on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform, a team of researchers from several German […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","nova_meta_subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[14356,15963,6406],"supplier":[2317,4514],"class_list":["post-88881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-biodiversity","tag-cap","tag-environment","supplier-european-commission","supplier-european-parliament"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88881\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88881"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=88881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}