Agricultural biodiversity encompasses all wild and domesticated forms of life found on farms, from plant varieties and breeds of animals, to soil organisms, pests and pollinators.
The common agricultural policy sets out to safeguard biodiversity within sustainable systems of farming; ensuring that farmers can produce food and earn a living whilst protecting agricultural ecosystems.
Agricultural biodiversity in the EU
Agriculture and biodiversity are strongly interrelated:
- Biodiversity relies on agriculture: In the EU, agriculture supports and shapes a wide variety of habitats, plants, pollinators, animals, fungi and microorganisms. According to the European environment agency (EEA), 50% of all species in the EU rely upon on agricultural habitats. The EEA identified 63 habitat types that depend upon, or can profit from, agricultural activities – mainly low-intensity grazing and mowing.
- Agriculture relies on biodiversity: The production of food and fibre depend upon a variety of ecosystem services, such as soil and water conservation, maintenance of soil fertility, resistance to pests and diseases, pollination of crops and diversity of genetic resources. A number of these services are also essential for mitigating and adapting to climate change and environmental pressures.
The European Commission has launched the Agri Sustainability Compass, an interactive tool providing comprehensive information on sustainability in agriculture and rural areas.
Halting and reversing biodiversity loss
However, agricultural biodiversity is in decline across the EU. While there are several contributing factors – including land use change, pollution, climate change, and the impact of invasive species - the decline is also related to some intensive agricultural practices:
- the abandonment of agricultural activity is a major risk for biodiversity decline, leading to the disintegration of farmland features, landscape homogenisation and soil degradation; this results for example to the disappearance of certain biodiversity-rich habitats such as permanent grasslands;
- practices associated with intensive farming systems can be harmful to biodiversity, including for example, monoculture, under-rotation, overuse of fertilisers and pesticides, heavy mechanisation;
- the removal of landscape features and loss of habitats such as hedges, stone walls, terraces, rough grass margins, woodlots, trees, ponds, old buildings.
The common agricultural policy (CAP) has among its objectives to contribute to halting and reversing biodiversity loss, enhancing ecosystem services and preserving habitats and landscapes.
Through the CAP, the European Commission aims to support farmers to:
- restore, conserve and enhance biodiversity and pollinator populations in their farms;
- preserve and maintain landscape features;
- conserve and valorise diverse genetic resources;
- facilitate the wide array of ecosystem services made possible by biodiversity.
Agricultural biodiversity is a broad term that includes all components of biological diversity of relevance to food and agriculture, and all components of biological diversity that constitute the agro-ecosystem: the variety and variability of animals, plants and micro-organisms, at the genetic, species and ecosystem levels, which are necessary to sustain key functions of the agro-ecosystem, its structure and processes.
EU biodiversity strategy
The European Commission aims to ensure that agriculture can make a strong contribution to the EU’s biodiversity strategy, one of the central components of the European Green Deal. The biodiversity strategy sets out a number of key targets related to agriculture:
- expanding the Natura 2000 network so that 30% of EU land is protected;
- placing at least 10% of agricultural area in the EU under high-diversity landscape features;
- placing at least 25% of agricultural land under organic farming;
- reducing nutrient loss from fertilisers by at least 50% and reducing the risk and use of chemical pesticides by 50%;
- reverse the decline of wild pollinators by 2030.
Enhancing agricultural biodiversity is also essential when it comes to achieving a sustainable food system for the EU, as set out in the farm to fork strategy.
CAP actions
The CAP promotes sustainable agricultural systems in the EU, enabling farmers to:
provide safe, healthy, and sustainably-produced food for society;
earn a stable and fair income, taking into account the full range of public goods they provide;
protect natural resources, enhance biodiversity, and contribute to the fight against climate change.
The rules and measures of the CAP help farmers to protect local agroecosystems and encourage the uptake of biodiversity-friendly practices.
The CAP 2023-27 entered into force on 1 January 2023. It is designed to boost agriculture’s contribution to the goals of the EU’s biodiversity strategy.
CAP specific objective
One of the ten specific objectives of the CAP 2023-27 focuses on restoring biodiversity through enhancing landscape features, ecosystem services, and genetic resources.
CAP Strategic Plans
With CAP Strategic Plans, EU countries have more flexibility to meet the needs of local ecosystems while contributing to shared EU goals for biodiversity.
EU countries’ CAP Strategic Plans combine a wide range of targeted interventions to address their specific needs and deliver tangible results.
The plans must contribute to, and be consistent with, EU legislation and commitments relating to climate and environment.
Conditionality
Under conditionality rules, beneficiaries of the CAP must meet a set of statutory management requirements (SMRs) and good agricultural and environmental conditions (GAECs). A number of these rules focus on protecting farmland ecosystems:
- farmers must comply with EU directives on the conservation of wild birds (SMR 3) and natural habitats (SMR 4), which involves protecting Natura 2000 areas;
- requirements to comply with EU directives on nitrates (SMR 2) and pesticides (SMRs 7 and 8) that also protect biodiversity;
- under GAEC 8, farmers must ensure the retention of landscape features on agricultural land as chosen by EU countries such as walls, hedges, banks, watercourses and trees;
- other GAECs safeguard soil and water, bringing knock-on benefits for biodiversity.
Eco-schemes and rural development
Under CAP rules, eco-schemes and rural development commitments support farmers who adopt or maintain farming practices that contribute to EU environmental and climate goals. Through eco-schemes and rural development commitments, the EU rewards farmers for preserving natural resources and providing public goods, which are benefits to the public that are not reflected in market prices and can include practices that support biodiversity.
Interventions supported under the CAP that help enhance biodiversity, are:
- area-based commitments to multi-annual and/or annual practices such as maintaining high nature value grassland, adopting extensive grazing, breeding traditional plant varieties, and preserving wetlands as important biodiversity habitats;
- Natura 2000 payments to compensate farmers and foresters for additional costs and income foregone when implementing the Birds and Habitats Directives;
- investment measures used towards establishing landscape features, drawing up nature management plans, and purchasing biodiversity-friendly machinery;
- support to organic farming and forestry to improve the state of ecosystems.
The European (EU) CAP Network facilitates the sharing of ideas and good practices for agricultural ecosystems through thematic work on eco-schemes, the green architecture, and pollinators.
The agricultural European innovation partnership (EIP-AGRI) supports projects, focus groups, and operational groups that transform innovative ideas into practical solutions. For example, the EIP-AGRI focus group on high nature value farming examined how improved cooperation, technology, and management systems could improve the social and economic sustainability of HNV farming without losing its environmental value.
Green architecture
The green architecture for the CAP 2023-27 incorporates stronger rules and offers more opportunities for biodiversity-friendly farming.
- For example, an extra portion of the CAP’s budget is set aside for eco-schemes, which can support voluntary practices undertaken by farmers.
- At the same time, EU countries are obliged to reserve at least 35% of their rural development budget for environmental and climate-related practices.
This document provides a detailed overview of the 27 EU members’ key elements and choices in their approved national plans. It also responds to requests for information to summarise what plans contain and aim to deliver.
Monitoring progress
As part of the common monitoring and evaluation framework (CMEF), the Commission collects a wide range of indicators and undertakes frequent policy evaluations and studies, which can help to determine the success of the CAP in reaching its objectives for biodiversity:
- the Commission’s agri-food data portal includes a dashboard with some of the most relevant indicators for biodiversity;
- in November 2019, an independent evaluation of the impact of the CAP on habitats, landscapes, and biodiversity was published on behalf of the Commission.
Under the Commission’s proposals, the CAP 2023-27 is to include a reinforced performance monitoring and evaluation framework, which will facilitate greater accountability and the transition to a performance-based delivery model.
Knowledge, research, and innovation
The Commission supports research and innovation on ecological approaches and organic farming to unlock modern systems of farming that can be productive, profitable, and biodiversity-friendly.
The farm advisory system advises farmers how to comply with rules and requirements to protect biodiversity on their farms, while also spreading knowledge of new methods and technology that can benefit biodiversity.
Legal bases
Conditionality is governed by:
- rules on support for Strategic Plans drawn up by EU countries under the common agricultural policy (Regulation (EU) 2021/2115) (Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/126);
- rules on the financing, management and monitoring of the common agricultural policy (Regulation (EU) 2021/2116) (Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/128).
Eco-schemes, agri-environment-climate commitments (AECCs) and investments are governed by:
- rules on support for Strategic Plans drawn up by EU countries under the common agricultural policy (Regulation (EU) 2021/2115).
