Space for nature on farms in the new CAP: not in this round

» An area of at least 10% of non-productive elements, including fallow land, is critical for the maintenance and restoration of biodiversity on agricultural land. This has been eflected by including a corresponding target in the EU Biodiversity Strategy.
» The analysis shows that the draft CAP strategic plans are unlikely to adequately contribute to reaching the 10% biodiversity target.
The reasons include: low mandatory baseline, use of exemptions and weighting factors that inflate the real area. The ambition to support non-productive elements by voluntary schemes measured by indicator R.34 is blatantly inadequate and/or in many cases the area is overestimated.
» The European Commission should not allow creative accounting with nature. It must insist that all CAP strategic plans include a target for indicator R.34 and show their ambition to support non-productive elements through voluntary measures. The value of the indicator must be sufficient to reach the Green Deal biodiversity target and include only measures that truly support non-productive elements and areas.