Irish Regions Office Website

January 29, 2010

Environmental Benefits of CAP

The Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) has published a report attempting to identify, for the first time, the full range of environmental and wider societal benefits arising from European farming. Public goods provided by agriculture in the European Union concludes that many of these benefits - including the maintenance of high quality water and soils, cultural landscapes, and biodiversity habitats - are found to be highly valued but are already not being provided on a sufficient scale (a situation likely to further deteriorate in the future with technological change and the threats of climate change impact and commodity price instability upon farming).

Instigated on behalf of the Commission's DG Agriculture and Rural Development, the report sets out the arguments for increased public intervention in the delivery of such goods and services. It argues that this can best be achieved through appropriately targeted Common Agricultural Policy measures whereby direct payments are, as now, tied into standards compliance based on environmental factors such as maintaining the condition of land. The publication comes at a time when the debate about the size and character of the CAP beyond 2013 is intensifying.

Report

Posted by iroronan at January 29, 2010 10:13 AM