CCAT approach to assess potential effects of CC measures on biodiversity and landscape Juan José Oñate

Introduction

CC is likely to impact, to a greater or lesser degree, on most of the processes related to European agriculture which are affecting biodiversity or landscape. Objective  To assess the potential effect of CC on European biodiversity and landscapes.

The analysis focused on the review of EU-27 national or regional (NUTS2) legislation on CC: 

793 SMR

obligations stemming from the

Birds, Habitats and Nitrates

Directives (17 distinct ‘measures’) 

424 GAEC

obligations (5 issues)

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Method Identification, qualitative assessment and aggregation of the potential effectiveness of each obligation.

BD 3 2 1 2 1 0 00 X L 0 2 1 1 0 0 00 X Obligation characteristics

Obligations containing elements directly targeting the maintenance or survival of animal or plant

species

, and habitats listed in the Directives. Obligations targeting

habitat structure and landscape structural

elements.

Obligations targeting

non-structural characteristics

of the habitat for species (i.e. pollution, erosion, water abstraction) Other

management prescriptions

, e.g. stocking regimes, stubble management or time limits for harvesting, packaging, or grubbing of hedges.

Other

management prescriptions

, e.g. minimum height of cut or restrictions on treated seeds.

Obligations

without effects

on biodiversity and landscape.

Obligations which

effects cannot be assessed

.

Obligations

not in force Cross Compliance Assessment Tool

Results level 1 – Aggregated potential effects on biodiversity

SMRs GAECs

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Results level 1 – Aggregated potential effects on landscape

SMRs GAECs

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Results level 2 – Potential effects of 3 Directives on biodiversity

Birds Directive Habitat Directive Nitrates Directive

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Results level 3 – Potential effects of Birds Directive measures on biodiversity

Maintain all species population Special protection areas Prohibit killing/disturbance

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Results level 3 – Potential effects of GAEC issues on biodiversity

Soil erosion Soil structure Soil organic matter Minimum level of maintenance

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Results level 2 – Potential effects of 3 Directives on landscape

Birds Directive Habitat Directive Nitrates Directive

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Results level 3 – Potential effects of Birds Directive measures on Landscape

Maintain all species population Special protection areas Prohibit killing/disturbance

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Results level 3 – Potential effects of GAEC issues on on landscape

Soil erosion Soil structure Soil organic matter Minimum level of maintenance

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Discusion

• Potential effectiveness, although always positive,

varies strongly among regions

.

• These differences deserve further analysis and discussion as to whether they reflect varying

environmental conditions

and

farming types

and/or varying

political willingness

to seriously tackle with the existing agri-environmental issues at hand.

• To obtain

more realistic results

, calculated potential effectiveness should be translated to an

expected effectiveness per region

 Including levels of compliance with obligation (difficult to attempt at the moment due to lack of data)

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Conclusions and further work

• The proposed method seems

useful to explore patterns of potential effectiveness

of CC on biodiversity and landscape in the EU

at regional level

.

• Linkage of databases, modelling procedures and a user interface in a single tool, will allow

end-users of CCAT

to

explore patterns of CC effectiveness

in a

friendly way

.

•

Other SMRs

expected to have an effect on biodiversity and landscape, i.e. Sewage Sludge and Groundwater Directives,

will soon be included

in the assessment.

• Implementation prescription for

SMRs in new Member States

will also be included in

last year of CCAT Cross Compliance Assessment Tool

Conclusions and further work

• In addition to this qualitative assessment of the effectiveness of standards for biodiversity and landscape

two other assessments are proposed

: 1. Assessment of

impacts

induced by predicted

land use and livestock intensity changes

as a consequence of CC (Included in PT1)

2. Impact assessments

on habitat quality derived

from environmental indicators

. (To be included in PT2)

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Thank you for your attention!!

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