Aspects of data on diverse relationships between agriculture and the environment : final report

While agriculture has historically shaped the rich biodiversity heritage of EU countries, over the last 60 years this synergistic relationship has been undermined. A 'polarisation' process has been operating, involving intensification and specialisation of agricultural production on land with more production potential, and marginalisation, abandonment and afforestation of land with less agricultural production potential. This has resulted in substantial losses of species and habitats associated with farmland, such as, for example, indicator bird species, grassland butterflies (BCE papers) and declines in the extent and condition of Annex I farmland habitats. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been a central influence in the development of European agriculture, along with technological and market developments, and broader socio-economic processes in rural areas, all of which have driven structural change and changes to management practice. Sustainable management of natural resources has therefore been added to the objectives of the CAP as from 2014 which beside integration of measures to protect biodiversity and the wider environment within agriculture also requires increased attention for climate action in agriculture. The Biodiversity Strategy targets 1, 2 and 3 are dependent to a considerable extent on addressing these challenges given the wide land use share of agriculture. Data and information systems are critical to effective policy development for two reasons. On the one hand, development of effective policies is only possible if good indicators and data are in place for measuring changes taking place on the ground, and for evaluating and understanding the effects of CAP policies. On the other hand, effective targeting of policy instruments is highly dependent on data and administration systems that capture the full range of farmland types, and that enable the differentiation of farmland types according to key environmental values and threats. Agri-environmental indicators (AEIs) are important in the assessment of trends over time of the effects of agriculture on the environment, and the effectiveness of agricultural and environmental policy measures. The Diredate project results have shown that for the reporting on the 28 agri-environmental indicators (AEIs) 97 different types of data are needed. These come from 45 different data sources of which the most important are the Farm Structure Survey (FSS), the Survey on Agricultural Production Methods (SAPM) and the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN), Land Use/Cover Area frame Statistical Survey (LUCAS), OECD agri-environmental indicators and Corine Land Cover (Corine).