Landscape features in the EU Member States
A review of existing data and approaches
Agricultural landscape features are small fragments of natural or semi-natural vegetation in agricultural land which, compared to their relatively small size, provide important contributions to ecosystem services and biodiversity. They have long-standing historical and cultural roots in the agricultural landscapes of Europe, but with the advent of intensive agriculture, landscape features became threatened. Nevertheless, landscape features can have a major role in making European agriculture more resilient to the key environmental challenges of the 21st century, including climate change and biodiversity decline.
In this report we analysed the main strategies and approaches followed by the Member States (MS) to mainstream landscape features (LF) in their implementation of the CAP during the 2014-2020+ programming period. All of the available instruments (GAEC, EFA, RDP) have been popular among the MS, but there was a high diversity in the selection of instruments for particular LF types. Similarly, the MS applied highly diverse definitions and criteria for identifying LF, customized according to the national needs and traditions. Several lessons can be drawn from these definitions, including a representative set of geometric specifications and definitional criteria, which can support the future MS and EU-level LF applications. (...)
CZUCZ Balint;
BARUTH Bettina;
ANGILERI Vincenzo;
PRIETO LOPEZ Ana;
TERRES Jean-Michel;
2022-05-05
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC128876
978-92-76-52324-6 (online),
1831-9424 (online),
EUR 31063 EN,
OP KJ-NA-31063-EN-N (online),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC128876,
10.2760/101979 (online),
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