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Supporting High Nature

Value farming systems

Davy McCracken

Countryside Management: Action for Biodiversity

Cross-campus video conference, 18 October 2011

Taking action for any

biodiversity concern involves:

• Recognise what the issues are

• Understand the processes involved

• Raise awareness of the concern and the issues

• Ensure they are a policy priority

• Identify: how much, where and in what condition

• Develop and deliver appropriate funding

mechanisms at relevant scale

• Monitor outcomes and adapt the

approach where necessary

Taking action for HNV

farming systems:

• Recognise what the issues are

• Understand the processes involved

• Raise awareness of the concern and the issues

• Ensure they are a policy priority

• Identify: how much, where and in what condition

• Develop and deliver appropriate funding

mechanisms at relevant scale

• Monitor outcomes and adapt the

approach where necessary

Pressures on farmland

biodiversity

Intensity of agriculture

• Intensification of

management practices

• Abandonment of

management practices

• Simplification of

agricultural landscapes

Graph from presentation by: Hoogeveen Y.R., Petersen J.E. & Gabrielsen P. (2001). Agriculture and biodiversity in Europe. Background report to the High-Level

European Conference on Agriculture and Biodiversity, 5–7 June, Paris. STRA-CO/AGRI (2001) 17. Council of Europe/UNEP.

• Recognised that habitats and landscapes of High

Nature Value ARE intimately associated with

farming practices

• Taking land out of agricultural production is

not the answer for farmland biodiversity

RATHER

• it is essential to ensure type and intensity of

farm management is appropriate

• Over 45% (173 million ha) of EU27

Farmland and

biodiversity

HNV farming systems are

of HNV because:

• High proportion of semi-natural vegetation

• Lot of natural vegetation and features

• Constraints on type AND timing of

management

• Constraints on grazing and cropping pressure

• Limits to number of animals and

need to move these between pastures

• Longevity of systems allows ecological

„predictability‟ and „stability‟

• They introduce spatial diversity (especially

patchwork of habitats)

• They introduce temporal diversity (especially

patchwork of management)

• Provide links between habitats/landscapes

(whether in close proximity or far apart)

HNV farming systems are

of ecological importance:

Underlying principle

was, and remains:

• A large proportion of EU farmland is of particularly

high nature conservation value

• That market pressures/support limits are increasingly

making these farms economically unviable

• Intensifying/abandoning the farming systems on

these farms would adversely impact the HNV

• There was therefore a case for

considering directing additional

financial support to these farms to

help maintain the HNV

EU 27 RDP priorities

• Axis 2 (Sustainable land management)

targeted at “biodiversity and

preservation of high nature value

farming and forestry systems, water,

and climate change. “

Increasing focus on

HNV decline

We would also

suggest that …. the

concept of High

Nature Value farming

should be a high

priority objective.

Taking action for HNV

farming systems :

• Recognise what the issues are

• Understand the processes involved

• Raise awareness of the concern and the issues

• Ensure they are a policy priority

• Identify: how much, where and in what condition

• Develop and deliver appropriate funding

mechanisms at relevant scale

• Monitor outcomes and adapt the

approach where necessary

High Nature Value

farming systems

The term “HNV farming” dates from

1993 -Nature Conservation and New

Directions in the CAP

This and subsequent reports highlighted

that the common characteristic of HNV

farming was a low intensity use of:

• Livestock densities per ha

• Nutrient inputs (nitrogen)

• Biocides

Identification of HNV

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HNV characteristics

Surrogate: Proportion of Utilisable

Agricultural Area consisting of

rough grazing. Potentially HNV

when rough grazing is > 70% UAA

Surrogate: Livestock Units per

available forage ha. Potentially

HNV when < 0.2 LU/ha on rough

grazing and < 1.0 LU/ha on in-bye

ground, i.e. < 0.44 LU/ha at „whole

farm‟ level where rough grazing is >

70% UAA

Identifying HNV

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Identifying HNV in

Scotland

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Identifying HNV in

Scotland

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Identifying HNV in

Scotland

What’s happening

elsewhere?

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Identification of HNV

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• Complex - but can be

done

• Some EU Member

States have taken the

need to do this more

seriously than others

Taking action for HNV

farming systems :

• Recognise what the issues are

• Understand the processes involved

• Raise awareness of the concern and the issues

• Ensure they are a policy priority

• Identify: how much, where and in what condition

• Develop and deliver appropriate funding

mechanisms at relevant scale

• Monitor outcomes and adapt the

approach where necessary

Support for HNV

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Currently:

• EU27 spend on CAP = € 53 billion

per year

• Old EU15, Pillar 1 = 85% of CAP

spend. Only c.1.3% to 4% of CAP

spent on agri-environment per se

(and no HNV focus)

• New EU12, Pillar 1 = < 60% of CAP

spend. Some support specifically for

HNV

Support for HNV

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CAP post 2013:

• European Commission looking for major

changes to funding and support

mechanisms for agriculture as a whole

• HNV only one part of the bigger picture

• Likely that HNV will not be stated as a

CAP priority BUT will remain an indicator

against which RDPs will be judged

• Political Will and Pressure will be a big

driver in the shape of reformed CAP and

whether HNV remains a MS priority

A focus for discussion:

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Are HNV farming systems the only way to

maintain the associated high nature conservation

value habitats and species?

What will happen if the EU doesn‟t require that

Member States direct additional financial support

at HNV farming systems?

Where should Member States take the funding

for such support from elsewhere within the CAP?

What are the implications of taking that support

from elsewhere within the CAP?

What more needs to be done to ensure that HNV

farming systems remain a CAP priority in

Member States post-2013?

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Davy McCracken

davy.mccracken@sac.ac.uk

www.sac.ac.uk/ruralpolicycentre

http://www.knowledgescotland.org/briefings.php?id=64/

An HNV Farming System Policy Briefing can be found at:

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