Building alliances between farmers & environmentalists

What CAP is needed to face up to the environmental challenges?

1 December 2009, Dublin

Luigi BoccaccioBirdLife International

Stefan Benko Ariel BrunnerAriel Brunner L Boccaccio

Why an alliance between farmers & environmentalists?

FARMERS• Justify public support to

land management• Build an EU budget line that

can be defended in the long term

• Support a smooth adaptation to potential increase in regulation or taxation

ENVIRONMENTALISTS• Using public money for

environmental protection

MUTUAL GAINS:

RSPB

The “Health Check” has left the CAP basically unchanged until 2013. We can’t afford more waiting

52%

24%

17%

7%

Conservation status of agricultural habitats

European Commission 2009

RSPBMariano Fracchiolla

The CAP has changed… but has also stayed the same!

EU-10 EU-12 EU-15 EU-25 EU-27

Source, DG Agri

8% of the CAPis currently directed at the environment

...yet the whole CAP money is accounted as“Preservation and management of natural resources”

under Heading 2 of the EU budget!

CAP 2007-2013 budget(including national financing)

RSPB & IEEP figures based on Rural Development Programmes

Completely untargeted spending, mostly historic entitlements discriminating against extensive farming

The main instruments are intrinsically flawed...

• Cross compliance & single payments scheme are ill-suited to deliver for the environment (BirdLife 2009b; European Court of Auditors 2008)

www.nrn.ie

• Several examples of agri-environment schemes being used as income support without SMART environmental objectives (BirdLife 2009a)

...while others are opportunistically distorted

A Hay

Luigi Boccaccio

Time for the tough question,what is the CAP for?

• Supporting farmers income?– But marginal farmers recurrently disadvantaged

• Improving the environment?– Cross compliance is just green smokescreen and harmful

farming systems often better subsidised than more sustainable systems

• Guaranteeing “food security”, safety and quality?– How exactly? With decoupled payments???

• Compensating for meeting EU standards?– Lack of systematic evidence of higher standards in EU. Many

sectors comply with high standards and receive no money…

The CAP is on weak ground• ‘Health Check’ found excellent health… but Court of Auditors

finds waste of public funds!• Tiny shifts of money between pillars get us excited, but hardly

anybody else…• A race to re-nationalisation: Member States free to channel

money where they see fit (art 68 and modulation “a la carte”), loosening of state aid rules.

• A widespread call for reduction in public spending

There are even those who say it is time to put an end to it all!

Well, first we should go back to basic principles

• What are the objectives?• What are the tools?• Where does it make sense to deploy tools at EU

rather than national level?• Is public spending the right answer (rather than

regulation, taxation, labelling, trade policy)?

So where does BirdLife stand?

• Environment and food “security”- understood globally and on the long term

• A strong policy able to influence land use at European level

• A system to reward land managers for the positive externalities of their production

• Support farming to move into new production systems that use less oil and less water, produce less emissions, conserve soils and restore biodiversity, while adapting to climate change!!!

We still need a CAP, but the right one!

Luigi Boccaccio

Luigi Boccaccio

What we don’t want?

• A policy that wastes resources • A policy without clear links

between spending and results: full accountability of beneficiaries and Member States!

• A return to policies that support production regardless of its sustainability

• A policy that unjustly discriminates between farmers (both inside and outside the EU)

RSPB

So what does it mean in practice? (1)

• Pay for the delivery of public goods• Support HNV farming systems• Support sustainable investments in

innovation, quality, diversification etc• Ensure a solid baseline: polluter pays,

not polluter gets paid!• Programming, monitoring, evaluation,

feedback, stakeholders involvement, subsidiarity & accountability)

So what does it mean in practice? (2)• Solid mandatory baseline (e.g. protection of

permanent grasslands and landscape elements)

• Decoupled area payments:– A basic scheme, available to most farmers,

rewarding sustainable practices (10% environmental priority areas, crop rotation, limits on stocking density and supplementary animal feeding)

– Specific support to HNV and organic farming

• Targeted agri-environment measures• Natura 2000 and WFD compensation schemes

Hellenic Ornithological Society

Andy Hay RSPB-images.com

So what does it mean in practice? (3)

• Capital grants for – Green technologies– Improved competitiveness of

sustainable farming systems– Diversification (when linked to

sustainable land management)• Services to sustainable land

management: – Advisory, alert systems,

cooperative management, management planning etc

E Vukelic

Andris Klepers

The CAP cannot solve everything

Adrian long

Marigo

Ariel Brunner

Ariel Brunner

• Environmental legislation and policies

• Consumption policies• Input taxation, water

pricing etc• Land use planning• Trade policy incorporating

environmental concerns• Energy policy

NABU

Interested in knowing more?BirdLife’s work on agriculture in the EU:

http://www.birdlife.org/eu/EU_policy/Agriculture/index.html

BirdLife’s vision on the future of the CAP: http://www.birdlife.org/eu/pdfs/CAP%20Brochure.pdf

BirdLife’s document on “Food security, climate change and biodiversity”: http://www.birdlife.org/eu/pdfs/Food%20Security_new.pdf

BirdLife report “Could do better: How is the EU Rural Development policy delivering for biodiversity?” http://www.birdlife.org/eu/EU_policy/Agriculture/eu_agriculture_do_better.html

BirdLife’s report “Through the green smokescreen: How is CAP cross compliance delivering for biodiversity?” http://www.birdlife.org/eu/EU_policy/Agriculture/eu_agriculture_Green_Smokescreen.html

Upcoming: CAP reform proposal…

Thank you for your attention!

BIRDLIFE INTERNATIONAL

EUROPEAN DIVISION

Avenue de la Toison d’Or 671060 BRUSSELS- BELGIUM

Tel. +32 2 280 08 30www.birdlife.org

Ariel BrunnerAriel BrunnerStefan Benko

Luigi.Boccaccio@rspb.org.uk

Luigi Boccaccio