Thematic Group on Enhancing Biodiversity on Farmland for Improved Resilience
Food production and farming practices can have both positive and negative impacts on biodiversity. The interactions between farming and biodiversity therefore play a critical role in the resilience of food production and sustainable resource management. This can take place through supporting the pollination of crops and the control of pests and diseases, contributing to productive soils, nutrient and carbon cycles, and water quality, and improving the resilience of farming systems to climate change through helping to mitigate the effects of droughts and floods. However, biodiversity continues to decline, particularly on farmland.
The recently agreed Nature Restoration Law (NRL) has an overarching, legally binding requirement to restore at least 20% of the EU’s land (and 20% of sea areas) by 2030, and all ecosystems in need of restoration by 2050. There are requirements for Member States to put in place agricultural measures to demonstrate increasing trends in various indicators (grassland butterfly index, share of agricultural land with high diversity landscape features, farmland bird index) as well as reversing the decline in pollinator populations, and requirements to restore drained agricultural peatlands and ensure adequate strategies are in place to manage grasslands.
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is a major source of funding to support the management and restoration of biodiversity in rural areas, and the CAP Strategic Plans (CSPs) are an important vehicle for achieving the NRL requirements in Member States. However, despite the fact that incentives have been in place for farmers to improve biodiversity on farmland for many decades, this has not been sufficient to achieve the scale of improvements required.
This Thematic Group (TG) is an opportunity for you to be part of a committed group of experts and relevant stakeholders that will examine what changes are required in terms of both scheme design and implementation to encourage greater uptake by farmers of the right practices in the right places and at the landscape scale. This should enable a significant increase in the delivery of biodiversity outcomes on the ground to improve the sustainability of farming practices, the restoration and establishment of habitats, and the resilience of farming systems.
Objectives
The objectives of this TG are to:
- Explore how to improve biodiversity outcomes on farmland through greater spatial coordination of actions for habitats and species, including improving the connectivity between farmland and the wider countryside (use of different interventions, scheme design, scheme implementation, measuring outcomes).
- Discuss how to incentivise uptake by farmers of practices and investments to benefit biodiversity and increase the resilience of their farming systems, and the benefits of working collaboratively with other farmers at the landscape scale.
- Examine the role of the advisory services and how these can best be deployed to achieve the outcomes required.
There is no charge for attendance at these meetings. However, for the in-person meeting, travel and accommodation costs may only be covered for TG members representing farmers, farmer organisations, LEADER Local Action Groups, European and national non-governmental organisations, researchers/Universities. All other TG members will need to pay for their own travel and accommodation costs.
The number of places in the TG is limited. If selected, and in fairness to all applicants, we require your firm commitment to participate in both meetings and to engage in TG activities in between meetings (e.g. informal online discussions).
The meetings will be held in English, without interpretation.
Expressions of interest can be submitted through the button below until 23 August 2024 at the latest.
Express your interest to join the Thematic Group until 23 August 2024
In case of over-subscription, participants will be selected on the basis of the following criteria:
Necessary
- Experience in and/or knowledge of the design or implementation of initiatives to improve biodiversity outcomes on farmland at a sufficient scale;
- Capacity and willingness to engage, network, and exchange effectively at national, regional and local levels;
- Firm commitment to participate in two meetings of the Thematic Group and the activities in between;
- Represent either a Managing Authority (MAs), National Networks (NNs), Paying Agencies (PAs), farming organisations, advisors, farmers, rural businesses, non-governmental or research organisations; and
- Ability to communicate clearly in English without interpretation.
Desirable
- Commitment to sharing design and implementation models and best practices with other members during the TG activities;
- Commitment to sharing TG outputs with other colleagues or networks outside the TG.
Please note that when selecting the Thematic Group members from the expressions of interest, the EU CAP Network will – to the extent possible – also consider the need to ensure a balance of participants from EU Member States, sectors and topics, and gender. Successful applicants will receive a confirmation of participation as soon as possible and by end of August 2024 at the latest.
Since places are limited and in the interest of fairness, successful applicants are asked to commit to participating in the TG activities. In case of unforeseen circumstances, TG members must inform the organisers as soon as possible if they are unavailable to attend a TG meeting. Non-attendance without prior notice may result in exclusion from future Thematic Groups and other EU CAP Network events.
If you have any question, please contact us at thematicgroup1@eucapnetwork.eu.
