Environmentally sensitive farming

On the day the Government announces its consultation on the future direction of agriculture, English Nature, the Countryside Agency and the Countryside Council for Wales pressed for new CAP reforms to benefit the landscape, biodiversity, rural development and people's enjoyment of the countryside.

The agencies urged agriculture ministers to implement the Agenda 2000 CAP reforms in an ambitious way, to:
+ place support for environmentally sensitive farming at the heart of agriculture policy - by redirecting money away from production subsidies, through modulation, to fund the Rural Development Regulation. An extra £30m would bring real benefits, for example helping to reverse the decline in farmland birds, sustain treasured landscapes and preserve our fast disappearing herb-rich grasslands.
+ deliver a broad approach to helping people and wildlife in rural areas - all the opportunities under the new EU Regulation should be applied, including increasing budgets for agri-environment schemes such as the Countryside Stewardship, supporting organic farming and helping people develop sustainable businesses in the countryside;
+ place environmental conditions on all direct payments to farmers - so protecting the environment across the whole landscape by requiring farmers to reach simple environmental standards;
+ ensure that rural development plans have a strong regional element - to ensure that measures under the new EU Rural Development Regulation meet the needs of diverse landscapes, people and wildlife in rural areas of England and Wales.

Dr Derek Langslow, Chief Executive of English Nature, said: "Nick Brown should show a lead in Europe, by putting in place at home what we want as the basis of future CAP reform. It is vital for England's countryside, wildlife and natural features that a new approach to rural policy is adopted. We need to move away from subsidising farm production and instead pay for what the public values in the environment: fine landscapes and wildlife. This is a golden opportunity to deliver on many of the Government's wildlife commitments."

Ewen Cameron, chairman of the Countryside Agency, said: "The final Agenda 2000 CAP reform is disappointing. It is a small step in the transition towards fully integrating agricultural policy with rural policy to meet the environmental, social and economic needs of rural areas. Further reforms are still needed. We must have a CAP in which all CAP payments are eventually decoupled to remove incentives to intensify production and to comply with WTO requirements. Compensation payments should be gradually phased out and transformed into rural development measures which include an agri-environment element."

Michael Griffith, chairman of the Countryside Council for Wales, said "The Less Favoured Areas contain some of the most beautiful landscapes and important habitats in the country, and their future depends upon sensitive agricultural management. We welcome the change from HLCA headage to area payments, which should lead to a reduction in overgrazing in these areas. We suggest that the new area payments should reward those farming systems which make a clear contribution to solving environmental problems, and we make detailed recommendations in the paper on how this might be done."