1. Most prominent environmental issues/concerns arising from farming:
EU – ways of incorporating environmental objectives and concerns into the CAP (Lecture 19)
Most prominent environmental issues/concerns arising from farming:
Loss of biodiversity
Decline in important habitats and species
Loss of landscape diversity and quality
Water pollution and excessive abstraction levels
Soil erosion
Air pollution by ammonia and greenhouse gas emissions
Food safety and animal welfare concerns

2. A way to overcome these concerns- Agri-Environmental Measures?
…designed to encourage farmers to protect and enhance the environment on their farmland.
Payments are made to farmers in return for a service – carrying out agri-environmental commitments that involve going beyond the application of usual good farming practice.
They may be designed at national, regional or local level
The measures are diverse but usually has one of two broad objectives –
Reducing environmental risks associated with modern farming
Preserving nature and cultivated landscapes.

3. Examples of agri environmental measures
Input reduction
Organic farming
Extensification of livestock
Conversion of arable land to grassland and rotation measures
Actions in areas of biodiversity
Genetic diversity
Farmed landscape
Water use reduction measures
Set aside
Upkeep of abandoned farm land and woodland
Maintenance of the countryside and landscape features
Public access.

4. Development of agri-environment measures and integration into CAP
Pillar 2 measures:
Support Less Favoured Areas
1980’s – adopted in a few member states on their own initiative.
1985 – Article 19, but remained optional for member states.
1992 – introduced for all member states as an “accompanying measure” to the CAP reform.
1999 – incorporated into the rural development regulation as part of the Agenda 2000 CAP reform.
A compulsory axis in the rural development regulation

5. 3.Compliance with general environmental regulations
2. Pillar one measures:
Setaside in the arable crops regime
Extensification and stocking density restrictions in the beef and veal regime.
Cross – Compliance
Decoupling of direct payments
3.Compliance with general environmental regulations
Biodiversity
Water pollution and management
Climate change
Biotechnology

6. Modulation – making the compulsory amount larger from pillar 1 to pillar 2.
Co-funding may be a problem at times.
Long term approach – continuous design and implementation of schemes to achieve the intended outcome and to reduce transaction costs: thorough monitoring of situation, new for CAP.