Agriculture and Rural Development
Common Agricultural Policy 2014-2020: Instruments to promote agricultural and
forest soil sustainable management
Antonio De Angelis
DG AGRI
Unit H4 (Environment, forestry and climate change)
Soil Stakeholders' Conference Session IV – How to promote
agricultural and forest soil
sustainable management?
Brussels, 5 December 2016
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Outline
Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2014-2020: Objectives
CAP Instruments beneficial for environment
CAP instruments contributing to agricultural and forest soil sustainable
management (with some examples)
Open issues
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Common Agricultural Policy 2014-2020: objectives
Viable food production
Sustainable management of natural resources and climate action, with a focus on greenhouse gas
emissions, biodiversity, soil and water
Balanced territorial development
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4
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Sustainable management of natural resources and climate action: the new greening architecture of the CAP
Agricultural area
(eligible for direct payments)
Cross compliance
Greening
Rural
development
Cu
mu
lati
ve
en
vir
on
men
tal
ben
efi
ts
Regulatory:
(Statutory
Management
Requirements and
Good Agricultural
Environmental
Conditions)
Mandatory
(with financial
Support)
Voluntary
(with compensation
for cost incurred
and income forgone)
Implementation mechanism
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Cross-compliance rules contributing to agricultural soil sustainable management
WATER
● GAEC 1: Establishment of buffer strips along water courses
( impact also on soils along water courses)
SOIL AND CARBON STOCK
● GAEC 4: Minimum soil cover ( prevent soil erosion and landslides, maintain soil
organic matter)
● GAEC 5: Minimum land management reflecting site specific conditions to limit
erosion
● GAEC 6: Maintenance of soil organic matter level through appropriate practices
including ban on burning arable stubble, except for plant health reasons
LANDSCAPE, MINIMUM LEVEL OF MAINTENANCE
● GAEC 7: Retention of landscape features, including where appropriate, hedges,
ponds, ditches, trees in line, in group or isolated, field margins and
terraces ……
( impact also on soil quality and erosion)
"The application of GAEC has reduced soil loss from arable lands by 20% in
past decade" (Panagos et al, 2015b)
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Examples of greening practices contributing to sustainable management of agricultural soil
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•Crop diversification:
Crop diversification and equivalent practices (e.g., crop rotation, winter soil
cover) are expected to contribute to improving soil quality.
Maintaining existing permanent grassland:
Ban on ploughing and conversion prevents other more intensive land use, that
can negatively affect soil quality
Maintenance of permanent grassland contributes to maintenance of soil
organic matter and carbon sequestration
Equivalent practices related to management of meadows or pasture can
contribute to preventing soil erosion (e.g., appropriate management of steep
slopes) and to preservation of soil biodiversity (e.g., cutting regime, pesticide
restrictions).
Ecological focus areas (EFA):
terraces, landscape features, buffer strips, agro-forestry and afforested areas
can contribute to preventing soil erosion.
RDP priorities and focus areas related to sustainable management of agricultural and forest soils
Among the Union Priorities and Focus Areas (i.e. sub-priorities) of the
RD programming period 2014-2020, there are:
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Priority 4: restoring, preserving and enhancing ecosystems related to
agriculture and forestry,
Focus area 4(c): preventing soil erosion and improving soil
management.
Priority 5: promoting resource efficiency and supporting the shift
towards a low carbon and climate resilient economy in agriculture,
food and forestry sectors,
Focus area 5(e): fostering carbon conservation and
sequestration in agriculture and forestry.
Examples of RD measures contributing to agricultural and forest soil sustainable management (I)
M04 – Investments in physical assets (art 17) (e.g. establishing landscape features such as hedges, stonewalls,
terraces to prevent soil erosion; purchase of machinery for minimum tillage and precise seed drill on untilled soils)
M07 – Basic services and village renewal in rural areas (art 20) (e.g. restoration of rural landscapes and high nature value sites)
M08 – Investments in forest area development (art 21) (e.g. afforestation, establishment of agroforestry systems; investments
in soil-friendly harvesting machinery and tools for soil-friendly practices)
M10 – Agri-environment-climate (art 28) (e.g. no use of herbicides and maintenance of spontaneous vegetation
in a given period followed by conservation tillage; Increase rotations with
winter cereals and leguminosae)
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Examples of RD measures contributing to agricultural and forest soil sustainable management (II)
M11 - Organic farming (art 29) farming practices with positive benefits on
soil organic matter content, avoiding soil erosion and soil compaction,
crop rotation, extensive management of grasslands.
M12 - Natura 2000 and Water Framework Directive payments (art 30) (e.g. only practices going beyond SMR and GAECs; major changes in type
of land use)
M13 - Payments to areas facing natural or other specific constraints (art
31) (e.g. maintenance of natural pastures and farming activities in mountain
areas)
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Examples of RD measures contributing to agricultural and forest soil sustainable management (III)
M15 – Forest-environmental and climate services and forest
conservation (art 34)
(only commitments going beyond mandatory requirement established by
national forestry law +
for forest holdings above a certain size (to be defined by the MS), support
conditioned to presence of a forest management plan or equivalent instrument
(in line with sustainable forest management as defined by the Ministerial
Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe of 1993).
European Innovation Partnership network (art 53): The tasks of the EIP network include to facilitate the setting up of
cluster initiatives and pilot and demonstration projects relating, inter alia, to biodiversity, ecosystem services, soil functionality and sustainable water management.
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Targets for sustainable soil management in rural development
programmes [Focus Area 4(c)]
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14.3% of agricultural land and 3.4% of forestry land under
management contracts to improve soil management and/or
prevent erosion
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Agriculture and Rural Development
Common Agricultural Policy 2014-2020: Instruments to promote agricultural and
forest soil sustainable management
Antonio De Angelis
DG AGRI
Unit H4 (Environment, forestry and climate change)
Soil Stakeholders' Conference Session IV – How to promote
agricultural and forest soil
sustainable management?
Brussels, 5 December 2016