Changes in land-cover within high nature value farmlands inside and outside Natura 2000 sites in Europe: A preliminary a
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Changes in land-cover within high nature value farmlands inside and outside Natura 2000 sites in Europe: A preliminary assessment Emily Anderson, Christos Mammides
Received: 31 October 2019 / Revised: 27 January 2020 / Accepted: 4 March 2020
Abstract Low-intensity agriculture is important for the conservation of many European habitats and species. However, biodiverse farmlands—also referred to as high nature value (HNV) farmlands—are threatened by years of agricultural intensification and land abandonment. Considering the ongoing changes in land-cover—evident throughout Europe—it is important to assess how land transformation is affecting HNV farmlands. Here, we evaluate land-cover changes within HNV farmlands during 2006–2018. We find that HNV farmlands inside Natura 2000 sites are less likely than those outside to be converted to artificial surfaces and more likely to maintain mosaic farming. However, land transformation patterns vary between member states, suggesting that different processes are driving the land-cover changes within each state. We recommend that member states support HNV farmers by making a more effective use of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and that the EU prioritizes the protection of HNV farmlands during its next CAP reform post-2020. Keywords Biodiverse farmlands Common Agricultural Policy European Union Landscape change Low-intensity agriculture Natura 2000
INTRODUCTION European landscapes have been shaped by centuries of anthropogenic activities, especially farming (Pe’er et al. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-020-01330-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
2014). Currently, farmlands cover approximately half of Europe’s land area (Stoate et al. 2009; Lomba et al. 2015). While large-scale, intensive agriculture is known to have negative effects on biodiversity (Henle et al. 2008; Stoate et al. 2009; Lomba et al. 2017), many European habitats and species depend on low-intensity agriculture for their persistence (Plieninger and Bieling 2013; Aue et al. 2014; Lomba et al. 2014; Pe’er et al. 2014). For instance, Halada et al. (2011) report that 63 of the 231 habitats of European importance—listed in the European Union’s Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC)—depend either fully or partially on low-intensity agriculture. Moreover, other studies have shown that numerous species of flora and fauna, e.g., farmland birds (Donald et al. 2006; Reif and Vermouzek 2019), also rely on low-intensity agriculture (Donald et al. 2006; Stoate et al. 2009; Morelli 2018). The realization that low-intensity farming can be beneficial to the conservation of European habitats and species has led in the early 1990s to the development of the term ‘‘high nature value (HNV) farmlands’’ (Baldock et al. 1994; Andersen et al. 2003). HNV farmlands are defined as ‘‘areas in Europe where agriculture is a major (usually the dominant) land use and where that agriculture supports, or is asso
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