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• EFNCP events
  Recent events:
  • Workshop on Results-Based Payments – Caernarfon, 12-13/3/24

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  • Farmers, livestock, habitats and fire in Ireland – Burren Winterage School workshop, 27/10/23
  • Workshop on Livestock and Biodiversity in Europe – Nature as a solution in Grazing Systems? – Copenhagen on the 22-23 August 2022
  • Workshop to review work on livestock grazing and nature conservation in Europe – Eggebek, Schleswig-Holstein, 13–14 August 2022
  • Workshops and study tour on nature conservation and livestock grazing in Europe – Workshop, 13 & 14 August 2022, Eggebek, Germany
  • How do you reward farmers and land managers for delivery of public benefits? – Workshop, 15 February 2019, Parke, Bovey Tracey, UK
  • Paying for ‘results’ in agri-environment schemes - can we meet the needs of both farmers and society?, Seminar, Blaenafon, 13 Feb 2018
  • Locally led agri-environment schemes - from a farmer’s perspective, Workshop, 13-14 March 2017
  • Reflecting ecology in policy, Sighisoara, Romania, 20-24 September 2016
  • Management of extensive grasslands ..., Boros, 29-31 May 2016
  • Exploring our Common Ground, Brussels, 18/19 November 2015
  • European Parliament seminar, Brussels, 17 November 2015
  • EFNCP Conference in Ireland, 21-25 October 2015
  • Symposium on HNV farmlands, Rome, 24th September 2015
  • EFNCP in the 2015 edition of Green Week
  • Irish Commonage Workshop, Dungarvan (2014)
  • Best practices for sustainable use of common grasslands in the Western Balkans and Europe (2013)
  • Farmers and policy-makers discuss the future of high-nature-value farming (2013)
  • ICAAM International Conference, Portugal (2013)
  • Extensive grazing in Europe... Hungen, D (2012)
  • Integrating biodiversity in CAP. Brussels, B (2012)
  • Semi-natural Pastures and Meadows ... Brussels, B (2012)
  • Europe's hay meadows in decline - what are we losing and what can we do? Brussels, B (2012)
  • UK seminar on HNV farming policies. London, GB (2012)
  • European pastoralisms : traditions fit for the future! Paris, France (2012)
  • Characterising and accompanying HNV farming at regional scale ... - Montpellier, France (2011)
  • High Nature Value Farming in South-Eastern Europe – SEE Regional HNV Farming Policy Workshop, Croatia (2011)
  • Seminar in European Parliament - Brussels, Belgium (2011)
  • Permanent Pastures and Meadows - Brussels, Belgium (2011)
  • High Nature Value grasslands, Sibiu, Romania (2010)
    • Video message
      HRH The Prince of Wales
    • Video message
      Janez Potocnik
    • Video message
      Dacian Ciolos
    • Session 1
    • Session 3
    • Session 4
    • Session 5
  • Seminar on HNV farming - Normandy, France (2010)
  • SEE Network Meeting, Bulgaria (2010)
  • International Workshop Vilm (2010)
  • International Conference on High Nature Value farming on Vilm (2010)
  • Mountain hay meadows - hot spots of biodiversity and traditional culture (2010)
  • HNV farming: initiating the debate in France, Paris (2009)
  • HNV Farmland in SE Europe (2008)
  • Can the Market work for Nature? Uppsala, Sweden (2007)
  • Uist Workshop (2006)
  • Pamporovo (2005)
  • LFA/HNV (2005)
  • Accession & HNV (2004)
  • Decoupling & HNV (2004)
  • Rural Development measures..., Montpellier (2003)
  • First Pillar CAP (2003)

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High Nature Value grasslands: securing the ecosystem services of European farming post 2013

International conference: 7-9 September 2010, Sibiu, Romania

Europe faces a multitude of social and environmental problems:

• The EU has failed to meet its target to stop biodiversity loss by 2010. Europe’s high-biodiversity landscapes are being destroyed by perverse incentives from the CAP
• Rural employment continues to fall and rural economies to fail in spite of massive income support payments
• Fires and floods are on the increase
• Europe is failing to meet it carbon reduction targets

EU policies so far have failed to solve these problems.

High biodiversity farmed landscapes dominated by semi-natural pastures and meadows (High Nature Value landscapes) deliver a whole range of ecosystem services that are worth billions of Euros if valued properly: biodiversity conservation, recreational landscapes, clean water, resistance to fire and flood, mitigation of climate change, high quality food produced at low carbon cost, viable rural communities. 

These Public Goods are not rewarded by normal markets. The current CAP leaves small-scale traditional farms at a disadvantage. As they and the landscapes they support disappear through the EU’s drive for competitiveness, pollution, floods and fires increase, and biodiversity, rural communities and valued landscapes are lost. But these landscapes, and the farms associated with them, can solve multiple social and environmental problems in an extremely cost-effective manner and can and should be supported by public funds.

To achieve this win-win of sustainable landscapes delivering wide environmental and social benefits, a wholesale reform of the CAP is needed: redistribution of funding from “conventional” systems dependent on heavy use of fossil fuels and fertilisers to those which support the ecosystem services which are very valuable to society, but which are poorly rewarded by the market.  Without such changes, we risk moving further from the European model of “multifunctional” agriculture delivering multiple benefits, towards the extremes of intensive agriculture in some areas and abandoned rural spaces in others.

The conference attracted 140 delegates from 18 countries from Azerbaijan to Spain and from Norway to Albania. A range of expert speakers was complemented by video messages from Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos, Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik and Prince Charles. As always a field trip, this time to the Târnava Mare region where conference partners Fundatia Adept work, gave all-important local context to the plenary sessions.

Outputs of the conference include

• a joint policy document supported by leading NGOs in this sector, The European Forum on Nature Conservation and Pastoralism, World Wide Fund for Nature, BirdLife International, Butterfly Conservation Europe
• a summary of conference conclusions which has been adopted by a wide cross-section of conservation and rural development NGOs in Europe
• a conference brochure that examines Transylvania as a case study , with a description of land management and issues facing small-scale farmers and rural communities in the area.

These documents, and the NGO alliance that the conference has helped to create, will all contribute to advocacy of HNV-targeted CAP reforms which will continue over the next few months.

The conference was organised in partnership with Fundatia Adept and with the kind assistance of Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu and formed part of EFNCP’s 2010 DG Environment Life+ Work Programme. More information on EFNCP activities in Romania.

More information

• Video message to the conference: HRH The Prince of Wales
  + Text version of the video message
  
• Video message from Janez Potocnik, European Commissioner for Environment
  + Text version of the video message
  
• Video message from Dacian Ciolos, European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development
  + Text version of the video message
  
• Session 1. Introduction to the conference and to the case study area
• Session 2. Field trip - see conference brochure
• Session 3. Ecosystem services of HNV grassland
• Session 4. EU policy context for supporting HNV farming
• Session 5. The challenge of improving policies to support HNV farming