Biodiversity on farmland - Projects Brochure

The EU’s 2020 State of Nature report showed that biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate, with agriculture being the main driver of this decline. Conversely, biodiversity loss has a considerable impact on agriculture. Promoting sustainable agricultural practices that prioritise biodiversity conservation can help mitigate these negative impacts, while enhancing the long-term resilience and productivity of agricultural systems.

Incentives to support the maintenance, restoration and recreation of species and habitats on farmland, as well as extensive farming systems that are beneficial for biodiversity, have been in place for over 30 years. However, their focus has predominantly been on the management of single farms and single parcels of land. Habitat restoration requires action at the landscape scale and greater collaboration and coordination of action between farmers, despite widespread uptake and some localised successes.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is one of the key sector policies and funding instruments to contribute to the delivery of biodiversity and environmental objectives and targets in agriculture. The EU CAP Network’s Thematic Group (TG) on Enhancing Biodiversity on Farmland for Improved Resilience looked at ways to unlock the potential offered by the CAP to design schemes that take a landscape-scale approach. Importantly, it also fostered awareness and knowledge exchange about existing successful practices among stakeholders.

This edition of the EU CAP Network Projects Brochure builds on the TG work as well as on the EU CAP Network’s ongoing collection of good practices. It highlights eight examples of CAP-funded projects that are improving biodiversity on farmland, with a focus on initiatives at the landscape scale.