Better targeted agricultural spending could enhance biodiversity
protection In Europe, agricultural land use is currently
characterised by intensification of farming of better land and
abandonment or afforestation of poorer land. More traditional,
low-intensity farming systems that support biodiversity, known
as High Nature Value (HNV) farmland, continue to disappear. With
an annual budget of roughly EUR 53 billion, the European Union's
Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is an important factor in
shaping Europe's agriculture. Its future role and objectives are
currently the subject of broad debate. The EEA technical report
"Distribution and targeting of the CAP budget from a
biodiversity perspective" stresses that EU spending could be
better targeted to support HNV farmland, thereby boosting
biodiversity. Despite recent reforms, most CAP payments still go
to the most productive agricultural land and relatively little
is spent to support HNV farms, which often have lower incomes.
All policy incentives to conserv