1. Working party ‘Agriculture and Environment’, Eurostat, 26-27 June 2008
Agri-environment indicator work at the European Environment Agency (EEA)
Working party ‘Agriculture and Environment’, Eurostat, June 2008

2. Organisation of AE analysis at the EEA
Land use group (coordination, land cover change, water accounts, rural + mountain areas)
Water and agriculture group (agri-water issues, AE indicators)
Biodiversity group (HNV farmland, Natura 2000, Indicators for 2010 biodiversity target)
Scenario group (trend projections, exploratory studies)
CC and energy group (bio-energy issues)
+ joint activities with partners of MoU..

3. Overview of EEA agri-environment indicator responsibilities
9 indicators altogether
2 ‘A’, 5 ‘B’ , 2 ‘C’ indicators
4 thematic areas: biodiversity, water (pollution + abstraction), air emissions, land use change
Most data flows based on environmental reporting and monitoring processes
Interest in many other indicators…

4. Review of individual indicators (I)
No 2 Agricultural Areas under Natura 2000
Natura 2000 reporting / CORINE land cover
No specific data flow under agricultural statistics
No 9 Land use change
Is based on CORINE land cover
Can this be validated with country level data?

5. Review of individual indicators (II)
No 18 Ammonia emissions and
No 19 Greenhouse gas emissions
Both based on international conventions for reporting on air emissions (UNFCCC)
Existing data flows well-established but modeling needs to be improved for No 18
No 20 Water abstraction
Based on irrigated area + water use statistics
‘C’ indicator but focus of work at EEA

6. No 20 Water Abstraction
National water use by agriculture is weighted regionally using regional irrigated area (OECD/Eurostat & FSS data)
Clear spatial pattern across Europe, reasonable spatial and temporal coverage
WFD relevant, although RBD scale would be better

7. Review of individual indicators (III)
No 22 Genetic diversity
Data basis is very weak (‘C’ indicator)
Relies on very diverse FAO statistics
No 25 Population trends of farmland birds
Data derive from bird monitoring organised by BirdLife and EBCC
A reasonable basis but more work to be done

8. Review of individual indicators (IV)
No 27.1 Water quality – Nitrate pollution
Based on national reporting
Data availability is improving
Challenge is regional / water basin level
No 27.2 Water quality – Pesticide pollution
Based on national reporting + data are weaker
Challenge is further data improvement + moving to regional / water basin level reporting

9. No 27. 1 Water Quality – Nitrate Pollution
Data availability – increasing rapidly
Eionet-Water; selected national monitoring sites
Rivers and ground water
Long time-series
Issue regarding missing data
Policy relevant – e.g. Nitrates Directive
Regional trends identifiable

10. No 27.1 Water quality - Nitrate Pollution
● Mapping of data within WISE, e.g. at a (WFD) River Basin Scale

11. No 27.2 Water Quality - Pesticide Pollution
Large recent growth in data (Eionet)
Mixed quality – temporal and spatial variations, pesticides get banned, new ones are introduced.
Issue (as with N) is to discriminate the agricultural influence

12. Thank you for your attention!

13. EEA agri-env. reporting aims to:
Document agri-env. trends in Europe
Be spatially explicit (water basin level, NUTS regions, grid/local level)
Link to major policy processes (CAP reform, WFD directive, Natura )
Support environmental policy integration
Advance the development of integrated environmental analysis