Bovine tuberculosis (TB) is a chronic infectious cattle disease caused by Mycobacterium bovis. Extensive cattle grazing on the common land is considered to be low risk but cattle wintering off the moorland may be at a greater risk due to confined housing or movement to grass in higher risk areas. In the high risk areas of the UK pre-movement testing of cattle for TB has been in place since 2006 to improve TB surveillance and to help detect infected cattle before they move and spread the disease.

Prior to 2014 an exemption from pre-movement testing for cattle movement to and from commons was in place. From June 2014, the default is that all cattle over 42 days of age moving to and from common land must be pre-movement tested. TB testing on common land is impractical and dangerous. Faced with TB Regulations, requiring pre-movement testing from the common, farmers on Dartmoor together with state veterinary staff from Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA) (now APHA) sought a solution based on risk assessment. The resulting TB Control Plans enable vets from APHA to license some cattle movements without pre-movement testing where veterinary judgement is that an agreed TB Control Plan for the whole common gives at least the same level of assurance as testing would provide.

Cattle are now tested after moving from the common. Under normal circumstances for post-movement testing, it is recommended that the test should take place between 60 – 120 days after the movement, as there is a risk that infection may go undetected if it was picked up shortly before leaving the common. The annual herd test can, where the dates are suitable, provide the pre-movement test on to the common in spring. This reduces the burden of multiple testing in a short period.

Together farmers and researchers have developed a payment scheme that rewards farmers in The Burren, Ireland, for achieving defined environmental targets, such as increasing species richness in the pastures. Recognizing the fundamental limitations of an action-based approach to agri-environmental schemes (AES) delivery, stakeholders worked to develop a locally-targeted ‘Hybrid’ AES, whereby farmers are paid for project actions (on a co-funded basis) and also for project impact/results. The resultant ‘Burren programme’ contains two main measures. Firstly, an annual 'works budget' is allocated to each farmer, which is based on the farm’s area defined as High Nature Value (HNV). Conservation works are chosen by the farmer to suit his/her needs. These works are submitted by a trained farm advisor for approval by a local team. Payment (25-75% of the cost of the work) is made on completion of work by the farmer. Secondly, the farm advisor assesses the 'environmental health' of every HNV field within the farm annually. This is captured in a field score (1-10) which is verified by the local team and is then used to calculate an 'environmental performance payment' for the farmer. Bonus payments are made for exceptional scores of 9 and 10, and no payments are made for scores less than 5. The two programme measures are closely linked in that, with targeted conservation works and improved management, field scores can be improved and payments increased. Data from 6 years of applying this approach on 15000 ha of land (160 farmers) have proven the positive impact and value for money of this model. It has now been expanded to the entire Burren (30000 ha) under Ireland's Rural Development Programme.

Results-based Agri-Environment Payments Schemes (RBAPS) create a market place which adequately rewards farmers for the ecosystem services they supply. Payment is linked to an assessment of the selected ecosystem service quality, using scientifically robust, fair and understandable results indicators. The development of the multifunctional scoring system is participatory, and requires time and expertise (e.g. to define/test indicators, train staff, farmers, advisers and inspectors). Two types of RBAPS exist: one where the payment is solely determined on the assessment of quality, and the hybrid approach where quality payments are cojoined with financing of actions for the benefit of the target ecosystem services.

A range of biodiversity/ecosystem services targets are delivered through RBAPS and species-specific schemes. The Burren Programme is one of the longest running RBAPS, progressing from a pilot phase of 20 farmers to a funded agri-environment scheme with nearly 500. It became a prominent EU focal point for results-based approaches, showing the importance of peer-to-peer learning. Recent RBAPS pilot projects in Ireland, Spain, Romania and the UK showed that the approach is valid for High Nature Value (HNV) farming systems within and outside of Natura 2000 areas. RBAPS work well when they are locally adapted, practical and the indicators results-focused on a clear target or vision. A balance needs to be struck between incentivising higher quality output, facilitating flexible and adaptive management and minimising overall scheme complexity.

The policy framework should provide a clear focus on incentivising performance and move towards long-term commitments to sustain newly created markets for ecosystem services.

Semi-natural grasslands and grazed woodlands harbour the majority of EU farmland biodiversity and farmland carbon, and provide water catchment services. They have declined and are threatened by intensification and/or abandonment. Management and restoration are supported with funds from the Rural Development Programme (agri-environment-climate measures and non-productive investment) and other sources. Advisors and farmers should receive training in best management practice.

For conservation measures to be effective, each grassland parcel should have a management plan. Finland, for example, has required site-level management plans, made either by consultants or the farmers themselves, as a prerequisite to receiving public payments. In 2016, Latvia instituted obligatory training for farmers applying for or already receiving payment for semi-natural grasslands. As part of the training, participants each make a management plan for one grassland parcel on his/her farm.

To assist in developing such training, the project prepared a ready-made assignment for instructors. Instructors can freely adapt it to the particular circumstances of their country. The assignment consists of 8 h classroom, 8 h field visits (2 trips), 5 h independent group work including expert feedback and revision. A final student seminar is optional. On receiving the training, the participants should be familiar with basic principles, management options and support availability for semi-natural grasslands conservation and associated nature values. Skill acquisition includes recognizing and systematically describing semi-natural grassland qualities.

The concept of High Nature Value (HNV) farmland and farming systems is poorly known across the EU: the concept itself is novel, and the conservation potential of agricultural areas is poorly appreciated. Due to the concept’s multifaceted nature, there are many possibilities to integrate the concept into teaching in higher and vocational education in studies in agricultural sciences, rural development, human geography, landscape ecology, and agroecology.

A simple way to integrate the concept into any international course is to set an assignment for the students to explore HNV farmland and farming examples in their own country. After having presented the concept of HNV farmland in class, the students get a task for 1-2 weeks to use all sources available for their respective home countries (in national languages and English) to produce a brief essay. The  focus of the course/study module will determine the specific questions to explore. For example:

* what are the types of HNV farmland in their country, where are they situated (you may attach a map), what are the trends;

* why are they important, for conservation, social coherence, rural viability (give examples);

* what are the farming practices that create and maintain HNV farmland;

* what are the specific challenges for the continuous existence of HNV farmland in your country.

During a following class session, the students should review and discuss the key results from their countries. For example, students from different countries work in pairs or small groups and draw similarities and differences among their countries. For this, the teacher can ask them to prepare one slide summarising their national case.

In order to support High Nature Value farming (HNVf), we recommend to:

- Integrate HNVf in the CAP vision, objectives and Strategic Plans, as crucial for achieving EU Biodiversity Strategy.

- Accompany the definition of permanent grasslands/pastures with EU/national guidelines that ensure eligibility of all areas effectively grazed or producing fodder.

- Improve CAP Pillar 1 to remove the bias of the system of rights/payments against extensive farming and reward the provision of public goods (e.g. eco-schemes).

- Improve CAP Pillar 2, increasing its budget and offering measures for locally-led HNVf projects and results-based schemes (e.g. AECM).

- Adjust the Performance Monitoring & Evaluation Framework, including an HNVf income indicator.

- Conduct a full assessment of HNV systems in Member States (values, practices, challenges, etc.) and design ambitious programmes of CAP/RDP measures to ensure their maintenance, with indicators to monitor their condition.

- Strengthen Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems with targeted approaches to boost HNV farming innovation, including a facilitation and advisory role for NGOs.

- Enhance joined-up policies/institutions for integrated HNV land management and sustainable development.

- Develop sustainable food policy to foster the production and consumption of HNVf food.

- Adjust the implementation of food regulations, to foster small-scale processing and direct sales.

- Adjust the implementation of animal health/welfare regulations and supporting farmers for predation mitigation.

- Improve land access/stewardship/monitoring to support the installation of HNV farmers, long-term investments, land planning, and assessment of environmental services.

Innovation does not take place spontaneously. It needs catalysers to take place. Those catalysers can be inside the territory or come from outside. The idea of “broker” is linked to the one of bridging different worlds, bringing something new to different parties. The role of an innovation broker is to facilitate the circulation of knowledge in order to achieve a project. One key competence of a broker is his/her capacity to build trust. He/she should be recognised as competent by all stakeholders. For a broker acting for High Nature Value (HNV) conservation, this means being able to make the link between ecological dimensions — the broker’s intervention must be grounded in a sound understanding of the ecological features of the territory — and socio-economic and cultural dimensions. A HNV broker must be multilingual and must adapt his/her communication to his/her partners without compromising his project. He/she should be persuasive for making change and innovation happen for HNV conservation. In many cases, a key asset for a broker will be his/her expertise and the networks he/she is involved in. Brokering cannot be a distant activity: it needs frequent contacts with stakeholders in order to be recognised. It takes time to be a broker.

HNV-Link Learning Areas set out to identify examples of innovation that improve the viability of High Nature Value (HNV) farming, while maintaining nature values. Over 140 innovations were analysed, spanning four themes: social/institutional, regulatory/policy, technology/management, products/marketing. The examples can inspire new HNV innovations. Each area also assessed the extent to which existing innovation is responding to the scale of the challenges faced by HNV farming.

Good examples of HNV innovation were found in all regions, but Learning Areas are at quite different stages. Some are suffering from rigid institutional structures and non-innovative policies that prevent support from going to HNV farming and block innovation on the ground by farmers and producers. Where there is sustained HNV innovation on a significant scale, this has usually been facilitated by a local project of some sort, typically by NGOs. Motivated “HNV facilitators” working with HNV farmers and institutions have a pro-active animation role that is different from normal extension/advisory services. It takes time to build momentum and for innovation to develop across themes. Continuity of projects over several years is critical, as is continuity of institutional cooperation and support.

Nowhere is innovation happening on a sufficient scale to respond to the challenges facing HNV farming. However, for all the gaps identified, relevant solutions exist in other locations. The challenge is to spread existing innovative approaches more widely. For this to happen, a favourable policy framework is needed at EU level, including explicit recognition of the role of HNV farming in delivering EU policy objectives within the CAP and Biodiversity Strategy.

Communicating innovative solutions to existing challenges in agricultural regions, including those of High Nature Value (HNV), to diverse stakeholders, is an important prerequisite for innovation dissemination. The Society for Territorial and Environmental Prosperity (STEP) - Bulgarian team of HNV-Link - turned the innovation fiches produced by the project into simple slideshows. These highlight all innovation examples of relevance existing in Bulgaria as well as most promising innovations from other project regions in an easy and attractive way. Also, the same innovation examples are made into attractive easy-to-use cards in a native language (Bulgarian). These products are available on the websites of STEP and of the National Agricultural Advisory Service of Bulgaria.

There are many professional and even free online programmes allowing to convert slideshows into videos that can be uploaded to YouTube, and video-editing programmes (e.g. Windows Movie Maker) allow adding audio recording (an audio explanation or music background) and modifying the speed of the slideshow.

Link to the youtube-playlist of the innovation examples in Bulgarian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWl1d4lAsN4&list=PLPBOkdftVRs16iYRGqAKe…

A High Nature Value (HNV) farming visioning consists in describing a future image of the territory, in which the local farming and food system are conserving HNV farming attributes while delivering economic and social performances. The basis of a HNV farming vision stands on the display of a future landscape – or a series of typical landscapes, showing and explaining why such landscapes are necessary for biodiversity conservation and how they should be managed accordingly. This dimension of the vision needs a certain landscape ecology expertise, not necessarily at hand in every territory. It should then be found from elsewhere. But the vision does not only consist in this ecological layer but also ideally considers the way farming systems are contributing to the vision, the way their specific needs — in terms of marketing, access to land, policy support, advisory services, etc. — are met and by whom. To be complete, the vision also speaks about and to all the actors such as local inhabitants, tourists, local food marketers, and local authorities.

The vision is a delicate exercise, combining rigor (being too rosy won’t be convincing) and inspiration (the vision needs to be desirable and to be shared). It is necessarily a collective exercise and it should not be understood as a fixed objective, set once and for all. The vision is a concrete support for discussion and for precising the common goals and means, and it is a common reference for engagement. The vision should be compared to the «business as usual» scenario (BAU): while the vision needs to be desirable, it might be demanding and calls for changes. Those changes are all the more justified when people fully understand why not changing things would create troubles for biodiversity and the whole community.

A baseline assessment (BA) should be the first step of any project focusing on High Nature Value (HNV) farmland and farming. It is necessary for a HNV farming broker to perform such assessment for two reasons. Firstly, one must understand the territory in which the broker is acting. What are its characteristics? Who are the actors? What are the challenges? This is an “internal” reason: the broker will be the main user of the BA from this perspective. Secondly, a BA allows assessing and demonstrating the added value of a HNV farming broker in the future. The BA is thus the reference picture at the start of the project. This reason is “external”, as it is used by the HNV farming broker to demonstrate the interest of his/her intervention to the stakeholders. A BA requires a multidisciplinary approach. All the dimensions of a territory must be understood (ecological, economical, sociological, institutional, etc.) and the territory must be put in its context.

The BA is a demanding task, taking time and mobilising means. It is an ongoing process. The HNV farming broker does not need to be an expert in all the dimensions but she/he needs to attract experts, including researchers and consultants for a formalised expertise and farmers and other local actors for local knowledge. What matters for the HNV broker is his/her ability to identify the relevant information needed to engage the stakeholders in HNV farmland conservation and to mobilise it at the right time during the process. The steps for performing the BA are: 1) identify the needs in terms of ecological, agricultural, rural knowledge; 2) identify the existing resources (e.g. existing studies, local experts), 3) set a work programme consistent with the means, and 4) reach the target groups with the BA.