CAP and National funding for grasslands Situation in Latvia Sabīne Bunere, Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development Gita Strode, Nature Conservation Agency

Funding mechanisms Direct payments and rural development policy LIFE projects Latvian Environmental Protection Fund EU Cohesion fund ?

Direct payments and rural development policy for semi-natural grasslands Latvian Rural Development Program 2014-2020 defines four grassland types and payment amount: grasslands on fertile soils and bird habitats (I class)- 83 EUR/ha; grasslands on moderately fertile soils (II class) - 155 EUR/ha; grasslands on poor soils (III class) - 206 EUR/ha; EU protected habitats outside of rural blocks ( IV class) – 330 EUR/ha; non-evaluated grasslands (0 class) - 55 EUR/ha; + single area payment 68 EUR/ha for 0-III class.

Direct payments and rural development policy for semi-natural grasslands Amount of semi-natural grasslands on CAP scheme: I class - 10408 ha II class - 2357 ha III class - 3943 ha IV class - 3367 ha 0 class - 54711 ha Similar scheme both for Natura 2000 sites and outside.

Direct payments and rural development policy for semi-natural grasslands All semi-natural grasslands are included into the CAP scheme as permanent grasslands which are environmentally sensitive: It’s not allowed to destroy a grassland; !! An administrative penalty is not applied, if an organic farmer converts permanent grasslands which are environmentally sensitive; In other cases farmer must restore permanent grassland till the 9th of June of the next year and a greening payment is not granted for the destroyed grassland area.

Direct payments and rural development policy for semi-natural grasslands Ministry of Agriculture plans to support management of 47 000 ha of semi-natural grasslands with 31 millions EUR for this period. Mowing start date is not specified – the grass must be mowed and collected from field till the 15th of September (for all permanent grasslands). Currently for payments have applied: On 2014 – 32 984 ha; On 2015 – 31 230 ha; On 2016 – 33 094 ha - 71% of the farmers who had possibility declared for this support. On 2017 the EU habitat mapping started and 237 262 ha grasslands will be evaluated as EU habitat, but amount of bird habitats will not be totally evaluated. Currently only 27% of semi-natural grasslands have possibility to receive full amount of available payment!!!

Cooperation between institutions The Rural Support Service (RSS) is responsible for implementation of unified state and EU support policy in the sector of agriculture, forestry, fisheries and rural development; it supervises compliance of the sector with the laws and regulations and fulfills other functions connected with an agriculture and implementation of rural support policy. Nature Conservation Agency (NCA) keeps actual information about semi-natural grasslands (EU habitats) and is responsible to divide it by payment classes. NCA gives actual information to RSS each January, then there are period for farmers to receive and act on actual information (1.02.- 1.04.). Semi-natural grassland management guidelines and farmer educational scheme. Iniciatives for the next period – individual grassland management plan for each farmer, specific educational scheme and targeted payment (monitoring and supervision from NCA, payment from RSS).

LIFE and Latvian Environmental Protection Fund projects LIFE – mostly indirectly, usually focus on birds (Gallinago media) – priority species. The long-term management of boreal grasslands after projects is strongly dependent on agri-environment payments and there is a risk that if agri-environmental payments are reduced or canceled for political reasons, the regular management of boreal grasslands would most likely be discontinued. Possible Cohesion fund support for habitat restoration, but high pressure from other sectors…

Recognized problems and future perspective Some of the terms of national funding are too detailed – etc. terms for cartographic material; No payments for possibilities to restore habitats outside Natura 2000 (except for LIFE but it can’t be a longterm solution/management); We could focus on programme «Non-material investments» but usually – only for new technic and buildings, not grassland restoration; No cattle = no use of remnant grass (LIFE Vivagrass are looking for ideas); The more we invest in flood protection, the less floodplain grasslands we have; We have no instrument for cases when land owners simply don’t want to participate.