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Options and opportunities in the new CAP

Thu, 10 May 2012 13:04:00 GMT

On April 26th Baltic Compass organised a panel debate at the European parliament on the options and opportunities the new CAP could provide.

The event was divided into two panels, the first discussing the challenges that are particular to the Baltic Sea Region and the second focusing on the solutions the new CAP could provide for the area.

The discussions highlighted the special circumstances of the Baltic Sea Region, including its history, the shallow and practically enclosed basin and the need for regional cooperation with non-EU members.

Panellists called for a more flexible framework, making use of the regional expertise and corrections to the uneven distribution of payments. Better promotion of the known good measures was called for, as well as exchange of good lessons, context specific knowledge and effective advisory service for the farmers in the whole Baltic Sea Region.

New concepts and broader base of actions and actors are needed as the new CAP alone – even if it is greener than before – is not enough to tackle the challenges the Baltic Sea faces.

First panel was chaired by MEP Sandra Kalniete who was there to answer on the future of CAP and how the European parliament is proceeding with it. Michael Hamell from DG ENVI of the European Commission also called for input and asked participants to approach the Commission with viable solutions.

Below you can find all the presentations and speeches held during the meeting.

Background

Programme and outcome

Staffan Lund, Baltic COMPASS

Kaj Forsius, HELCOM

Sandra Kalniete, Member of the European Parliament

Sirkka Tattari, Baltic COMPASS

WWF released new report ”Agri-environmental Measures in the Baltic Sea Member States”

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 11:34:00 GMT

WWF Baltic Sea Eco Region Programme has recently released a report about Agri-environmental measures in the Baltic Sea EU Member states. These measures are the actions that the farmers can do to protect the environment and that go beyond mandatory regulations. These measures are supported by EU under the Pillar 2 in Common Agricultural Policy. However, as the Member States have great freedom to design the schemes in the national level, there is a great variety on implementation.

WWF’s “Sorting out the Goods. Agri-Environmental Measures in the Baltic Sea Member States” report assesses how Agri-Environment Measures are implemented around the Baltic Sea, how relevant they are to environmental protection and how the system can be improved.

The report can be found here.

Case Study Schleswig-Holstein

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:16:00 GMT

Improving bottom-up project communication and acceptance

Baltic COMPASS partner LLUR (The State Agency of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Areas of the German Federal State Schleswig-Holstein) has prepared a case study report describing a new bottom-up approach to agro-environmental governance.

This case study is based experience from agro-environmental funding procedures in general and on the Schleswig-Holstein pilot region in Germany in particular, where two main risks where identified and addressed by the case study. The first indentified was the ecological risk of draught and algae blooms in lakes. The second was losing farmers as participants in agro-environmental measures.

Traditionally, agro-environmental measures have been designed and implemented in a top-down approach by the Federal ministries. Preferences of the population or scientific expert opinion have not been taken into account. Also, measures were not regionalised sufficiently to promote economical efficiency as well as ecological effectiveness.

The aim of the case study was to improve the development and implementation of agro- environmental measures and thus increase their acceptance from the farmers and also to create new win-win measures. The knowledge and ideas about regional situations, possible technical and spatial solutions from the farmers were turned into applicable solutions with the help of other participants such as agencies and universities.

This participatory design of measures leads to self-responsibility, acceptance and win-win solutions instead of compensation and control mentality. The implementation of algae ponds and controlled drainage systems are planned as a result of this process. Besides the two concrete measures, the idea and the lessons learned should be built up in a plan/strategy which can be forwarded to the Ministry.

To read more you can find the case study here.

Controlled drainage - a rediscovered approach for water management

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 11:32:00 GMT

State Agency for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Areas of the Federal State Schleswig-Holstein (LLUR), a partner in Work package 4, discovered interesting research on controlled drainage done in former East Germany before the fall of the Wall.

LLUR is working on a bottom-up communications concept that aims to increase farmers’ participation in the development of agro-environmental measures. A measure for controlled drainage grew out of a farmer’s idea on how to deal with summer draughts. His idea was to regulate the water in the field by closing a drainage pipe, so that the plants would get enough water for growing. Another benefit from outflow reduction is reduced nutrient leaching and thus smaller nutrient input in surface waters. This win-win measure for the farmer and the environment is a pilot measure to be implemented in Schleswig-Holstein by Baltic Compass.

Drainage regulation device (Source: Dr. Jörg Steidl, Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Institute of Landscape Hydrology)

Furthermore, this idea led to an interesting discovery: research concerning drainage management had been practiced in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR), but in 1989 the activities stopped due to the fall of the Wall. This guideline dealt for example with principles, conditions for application and information on water storage elements. These standardization norms for groundwater regulation of former East Germany have now been translated to English (see link at the end of the page).

The TGL guidelines (in English and German).

More on LLUR's work in Baltic COMPASS

Modelling the agricultural future – how to look in to the crystal ball?

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:02:00 GMT

“Agriculture development & scenarios – The Baltic Sea Region 2020 – 2050 – 2100” seminar, held in Stockholm on April 25th, will try to establish a common ground and understanding of how different stakeholders view the development of agriculture in the Baltic Sea Region.

Photo by: Anu Suono

Baltic Compass and Baltic Deal projects, represented by the Swedish Board of Agriculture and the Federation of Swedish Farmers, in close co-operation with the Baltic Nest Institute, Stockholm, and the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, invite modelers, experts and stakeholders to a seminar on the 25th of April.

The sustainable development of the agricultural sector is important for a prospering future Baltic Sea region according to the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea region (BSR). The agricultural sector is also significant for maintaining a rich landscape biodiversity, continued reduction in climate gas emissions and losses of nutrients to ground waters, surface waters and eventually to the Baltic Sea.

The losses of nutrients to the Baltic Sea are of particular relevance for policy-making and implementation within the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan, EU Water Framework Directive and Marine Strategy Framework Directive. Further, improved understanding of the mechanisms and driving forces of agricultural development and nutrient performance is central to many research projects funded by the BONUS Programme, a programme with a call for new research projects coming later in 2012.

Different projects concerning nutrient loading to the Baltic Sea use different scenarios for how the agriculture in the region will develop and how that will affect the Baltic Sea. The scenarios developed by marine ecologists may not always be in line with those that would be developed by agronomists. Discrepancies in scenarios and outlook on the development of agricultural sector in a future Baltic Sea Region can result in misleading recommendations. Therefore it is imperative to establish common ground and understanding on how different stakeholders view the development of the BSR. This seminar aims to broaden the view of what is “business as usual” and how do the different countries around the Baltic Sea believe the sector will develop.

The seminar is aimed towards marine ecologist involved in large scale modelling where nutrient driving forces in the drainage basin, such as agriculture, play an important role. The seminar is also intended for agronomists concerned with scenario modelling or knowledge about processes and mechanisms influencing what, how much and how food is being produced and how this relates to nutrient losses.

To find out more about the event and how to sign up, click here.

Viability of biogas as an agro-environmental measure

Thu, 08 Mar 2012 07:02:00 GMT

Assessment of stakeholder views on benefits and risks in Danish biogas development, with a case study from Bornholm

“If the Danish government maintains its ambitious biogas targets and wishes to see them implemented, then the national policy framework must be improved, and local actors must be able to strike up the necessary partnerships. In order to enable public as well as private stakeholders to judge their stakes in such projects and whether/how they should engage, there is a continued need to unwrap what sometimes appears to be an uncritical euphoria about biogas and foster a more transparent debate regarding what the actual benefits and risks are in specific localities.”

Above is an excerpt from the biogas report, written by Rasmus Klocker Larsen from SEI, as part of Baltic Compass’ Work Package 6 on Governance and Policy Adaptation.

Photo by: Rasmus K. Larsen

As Denmark is seeking to increase investment in renewable energy sources, it is looking into revising its biogas related policies. This assessment on the promotion of biogas examined the ongoing policy revisions along with enabling and disabling factors shaping the promotion of biogas.

The report also looked into how biogas may generate multiple benefits, reconciling economic, energy, climate, and broader environmental objectives. Supplementing the interviews with national level policy makers and other actors, the biogas plant in Bornholm, Denmark, used a as a case study in the assessment showed some of the opportunities and challenges facing local biogas projects

The full report is available here.

Baltic Compass is all eyes and ears in National Round Tables

Mon, 05 Mar 2012 07:33:00 GMT

The objective of the NRT sessions is to listen to the opinions of the stakeholders using the results from Baltic Compass as the basis for discussion.

Stakeholders from the agri-environmental sector including representatives of Ministries of Agriculture and Environment, other authorities, farmers’ federations and NGO’s will be invited to discussion sessions in each country.

The discussions will take up one or more of the following general themes:

Approaches to public policy for nutrient management

Adaptation to Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) or Rural Development Programmes (RDP)

Interaction of the CAP/RDP/Water Framework Directive (WFD) and Baltic Sea Action Plan

Estimating the cost efficiency of agri-environmental measures

Payments for ecosystem services

Measures to reduce nutrient loads

Control or management – commanding the agri-environmental issues

All the themes will not be covered in all the NRTs. The themes will be selected based on the work Baltic Compass has done in different countries, thus providing background information and results to be used in the discussion.

The first NRT sessions will be held in April. The dates can be found on the Baltic Compass calendar.

The conclusions of the discussions will be published in this website under Materials –section.

Case study on constructed wetlands in Finland

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:34:00 GMT

Kati Berninger from SEI Tallinn along with Sirkka Tattari and Jari Koskiaho from SYKE have produced a case study on Constructed Wetlands in Finnish Agricultural Environments.

Photo by: Eija Hagelberg

The case study, titled “Constructed Wetlands in Finnish Agricultural Environments: balancing between effective water protection and multi-functionality” analyses the potential and implementation of constructed wetlands in Finland.

The case study shows that independent wetlands projects have been far more productive than wetland construction through investment support, there is a need for special support for collaborative projects involving several landowners. The report concludes that a support system for constructing wetlands should be maintained but an overhaul of the support system is needed.

The case study is part of a wider report on constructed wetlands in the Baltic Sea Region and the full report will be published later in the spring. The report is a collaboration between the Assessment (WP5) and Governance (WP6) work packages in the Baltic Compass project.

You can download the full report here.

Finnish Agriculture and CAP 2020

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:01:00 GMT

Professor Jyrki Niemi from MTT gave a presentation “Finnish Agriculture and CAP2020” at the Finnish Parliament on Friday 17 January 2012

The presentation was given at a seminar on the CAP reform for an audience consisting of members of the Finnish Parliament, national stakeholders, the Finnish Minister of Agriculture Jari Koskinen and MEP Luis Manuel Capoulas-Santos who is the European Parliament’s rapporteur on two of the CAP reports.

The slides show how the Finnish agriculture sector relates to the rest of Europe and the significance of CAP payments for the sector. The slides are is available here.

Agri-environmental ideas on the icy Baltic Sea

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:12:00 GMT

Finnish farmers with an interest in environmentally friendly farming participated in a seminar with representatives from the agri-environmental sector on a cruise on the icy Baltic Sea. TehoPlus, a national agri-environmental project, invited the farmers to spend their Valentine’s Day at a seminar discussing topics relating to effective agricultural water protection measures.

The seminar was organised to enable the farmers and representatives from environmental research institutes and different agricultural projects to discuss the issues together and to learn from each other.

Sirkka Tattari, SYKE, presented some of WP5’s work Photo: Mia Välimäki

Sirkka Tattari, who leads the work package 5 on Comprehensive Assessment and Scenarios in Baltic Compass, presented the WP’s work in a presentation on the reliability of nutrient run-off models.

Tattari’s presentation focused on nutrient run-off and hot spot models. She pointed out that these models are a simplification of complex situations and thus likely to have some inaccuracies. By paying attention to the kind of variables used in forming the model, the farmers can see how applicable a model can be for their purposes.

The participants were interested to know how well such models take into consideration soil properties and how can they make use of these models. Tattari explained that these models can take all these factors into account, even at a farm-level basis, provided there is enough detailed data available.

Audience listened attentively Photo:Mia Välimäki

She was keen to find out whether the farmers would be willing to publish the amount of phosphorus they use so that researchers would be able to produce farm-level models. By modeling at a very local level, they would be able to identify which fields have enough nutrients in them already and which fields could use additional fertilization.

Other presentations in the seminar included Airi Kulmala from the Baltic Deal project where she explained how agri-environmental measures are regulated in the countries around the Baltic Sea. Kimmo Rasa from MTT Agrifood Research Finland challenged the audience on their phosphorus use by presenting evidence that fields can yield good crops without phosphorus-fertilization for at least four years, some fields with good enough soil could even skip 10 years.

TehoPlus, the organizer of the event, is a Finnish, government-funded, project aiming to improve water protection and water quality by preventing nutrient pollution.

All aboard! They’ve even got a Compass deck Photo by: Mia Välimäki

Comparison of agri-environment payments in selected EU countries

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 13:53:00 GMT

Here you can find English summaries of two studies that were conducted in order to compare the agri-environment payment systems of 6-10 EU countries with each other and with the Finnish system. The first report first gives an overview of agri-environment payments and and then focuses on water protection measures in 10 EU countries. The second report describes biodiversity measures in 6 EU countries which put a special emphasis on biodiversity.

Part I - Overview and water protection measures

Part II - Biodiversity measures

Work package 3 has compiled a list of prioritized measures

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:44:00 GMT

Work package 3 has compiled a list of prioritized measures that can be used by farmers to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus leakage. Most of these measures can be found in country specific regulations and some are entitled to economic subsidy. They include among others soil tillage management, fertilisation management and improved spreading technology.

Photo: Eija Hagelberg

The prioritized measures have been used by the partners in the WP3 group to produce national country reports “Implementation and status of priority measures” from most of the Baltic Compass countries. The country reports can be important to establish a common understanding of differeneces and similarities between countries in how the prioritized measures have been implemented. The country reports can be a guide for authorities and agricultural organisations of different strategies for implementation of different measures.

Below you can find the list of prioritized measures and the draft versions of country reports regarding the implementation and status of the measures.

Prioritized Measures List

Country Report Belarus (DRAFT)

Country Report Finland (DRAFT)

Country Report Germany (DRAFT)

Country Report Latvia (DRAFT)

Country Report Lithuania (DRAFT)

Country Report Poland (DRAFT)

Country Report Sweden (DRAFT)

Policy briefs from seven Baltic Sea countries ready

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:50:00 GMT

The partners working for Work Package 6 have created Policy briefs on the implementability of agri-environmental targets in the partner countries. The policy briefs are based on the country reports published previously, but also on the experiences and knowledge the partners have gained from dialogues with stakeholders. These compact documents give a very useful brief on the key agri-environmental targets, implementing actors and key challenges in each country.

Policy Brief Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

Policy Brief Sweden

European Commission released its CAP proposal

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 08:26:00 GMT

The European Commission has presented a set of legal proposals designed to make the CAP a more effective policy for a more competitive and sustainable agriculture and vibrant rural areas. The legal proposals are accompanied by an impact assessment. All the legal proposals and the impact assesment can be found here.

Click on the picture to view the presentation in PDF.

The ten key points of the reform according to the European Commission are

1) Better targeted income support in order to stimulate growth and employment

2) Tools to address crisis management which are more responsive and better suited to meet new economic challenges

3) A 'Green' payment for preserving long-term productivity and ecosystems

4) Additional investment in research and innovation

5) A more competitive and balanced food chain

6) Encouraging agri-environmental initiatives

7) Facilitating the establishment of young farmers

8) Stimulating Rural employment and entrepreneurship

9) Better addressing fragile areas

10) A simpler and more efficient CAP

(The video clips are Commissioner Cioloş' statements on the key points)

"Is agri-environmental support well designed and managed?”

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 13:01:00 GMT

European Court of Auditors has released a report about their study of agri-environmental support systems.

The Court found that although the environmental pressures are indentified in rural development programmes, they coudn’t be easily used to provide a clear justification of agri-environment payments. A progress could be seen in the implementation of common monitoring and evaluation framework, but considerable problems existed as regards the relevance and reliability of management information. In particular, very little information was available on the environmental benefits of agri-environmental payments.

The Court acknowledged the crucial role farmers play in the implementation of agri-environment payments and emphasized that it is important that farmers are well supported through guidance and that aid amounts provide them with right incentive.

The audit found also that most expenditure was made on horizontal sub-measures, without applying selection procedures. That was not supported by decisions about the desirable degree of targeting, on the basis of the costs involved. In addition, management decisions were not sufficiently evidence-based and did not focus payments at specific environmental problem.

The recommendations by the Court were:

the Commission and the Member States should better clarify, justify and report on agri-environment sub-measures;
the Commission should assess more rigorously key elements in rural development programmes before approving them;
for the next programming period the Commission should consider wheter:
- agri-environment expenditure should be more precisely targeted;
- there should be a higher rate of EU contribution for sub-measures with a higher environmental potential;
- there should be a clear distinction between simple and more demanding agri-environment submeasures; and
- the Member States should be more proactive in managing agri-environment payments.

The whole report can be found in all EU languages from the European Court of Auditors website under Special Report 7/2011 “Is agri-environmental support well designed and managed”