Farmland supports many habitats and species of European conservation concern. In 2003, Europe's environment ministers agreed to identify all farmland areas with high nature value and take conservation measures. This report shows that these areas cover roughly 15-25 % of the European countryside...

The EU has highlighted the importance of using the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) to prevent the abandonment of high nature value farmland and its intensification as a key action to halt biodiversity decline. The present report sets out to assess whether the current distribution of CAP funds is...