Maintenance of biodiversity is under threat following EU’s new farming rules

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The European Union’s decision to scrap rules on keeping agricultural land fallow is posing a major threat to the biodiversity of natural environments in Europe.
      Special environmentally-maintained meadows have been proposed to replace the 75,000 hectares of fallow land in Finland, but the funding for them appears to be insufficient.
      The problem is that the subsidy to be granted for such meadows is not likely to entice farmers.
     
The obligation to keep a part of farmers' fields fallow has been the EU’s way to restrict overproduction. The rule has had a major positive impact on the biodiversity of nature and water systems.
      The increases in food prices as well as the growing demand for biofuel have caused an abrupt volte-face in respect to farming, resulting in a decision to deploy all available fields.
      In November, the EU agriculture ministers decided that they would look at ways to boost food production rather than curbing it.
     
The agricultural policy was updated, and it was agreed upon that the environmental interests would be secured through certain rural development measures.
      A proposal was drafted for environmentally-maintained meadows and was submitted to the European Commission. Such meadows would include perennial grasslands and polymorphic fields with various wild plants and animals.
     
The purpose is that the costs for setting up such meadows and for related loss of income compensation would be paid to farmers.
      However, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has reduced the subsidies proposed by a working party so much that environment experts now fear that the entire system could be watered down.
      Senior Adviser Tarja Haaranen from the Ministry of the Environment says that the environmental subsidy is not supposed to be the only way to secure the biodiversity of farming land.
      ”The critical question is whether or not farmers are prepared to set up such environmentally-maintained meadows if the subsidies are not large enough. If not, there are no other measures available to replace the old obligation to keep land fallow”, Haaranen noted.
     
On the other hand, the purpose was never to make the promised subsidy too tempting to farmers. Special Advisor Tiina Malm says that the proposed subsidies were cut as they started to look too attractive.
      However, Malm hopes that the planned subsidy would be tempting enough in order that farmers could be persuaded to turn their leased areas into cultivated lands.
      Research biologist Irina Herzon from the University of Helsinki fears that if the change is voluntary, environmentally-maintained meadows will not appear in those areas where they would be needed most, namely in the southern parts of the country.
     
Fallow fields are seen as one of the safe havens for biodiversity, offering a home to many butterflies, insects and plants that would otherwise have a hard time. Equally, a good many birds thrive here that have seen their habitats otherwise jeopardised by intensive agriculture and forestry.
     


Links:
  European Commission press release 19.11.2008: New EU rules will leave farmers freer to respond to demand
  Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
  Ministry of the Environment

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