Agriculture & Land Management

Our Work

Helping to build the capacity, knowledge and skills of key actors in the field of agri-environmental policy is an important dimension of IEEP’s work. In relation to agriculture and land management policy we do this by holding events, facilitating workshops, producing guidance and providing bespoke training on a range of environmental issues relating to agricultural land management. We also provide advice to a range of stakeholders and other actors in the UK and other Member States on the EU dimension of agricultural policy, EU institutions and processes and the broader debate on land as an environmental resource.

Our output has reached all 28 Member States with guidance documents produced for public bodies, NGOs and European institutions. We have supported the mainstreaming of climate, biodiversity and other environmental issues within the CAP.  Over the years, a central element of our advice and capacity building role has involved working with EU Accession and Candidate countries, helping to build institutional capacity and sharing EU policy expertise to inform the development, design and subsequent implementation of their agri-environment programmes. Since 2000 we have undertaken capacity building projects in most of the Member States prior to their accession to the EU in 2004 and 2007. More recently we have carried out similar projects in Serbia, Macedonia, Turkey and Croatia.

Through our CAP2020 web-site we promote informed and independent analysis and commentary on the CAP. We aim to engender an active debate and exchange of information on CAP implementation and the ways in which the CAP needs to be reformed post 2020.

More about our work in this area...

Latest in Advice & Capacity Building

  • EU research project PEGASUS - new thinking on sustainable land management

    EU research project PEGASUS kicked off in London on 29-30 April. The three-year project, led by IEEP, is focused on transforming land management approaches in the EU to improve the delivery of public goods and ecosystem services from rural areas.

  • High Nature Value farming throughout EU-27 and its financial support under the CAP

    This study reviews Member States’ estimates of the extent of HNV farmland and use of RDP measures and the CMEF indicators, then identifies future priorities for CAP support for HNV farming and discusses the support opportunities under the reformed CAP. It offers detailed new evidence about the combined effect of Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 CAP payments on the economic and environmental viability of a typical HNV farming system in three Member States.

  • New report: High Nature Value Farming in the EU

    Member States need to make the most of the opportunities under the new Common Agricultural Policy if the declines in HNV farming, critical for meeting our 2020 biodiversity targets, are to be halted.

  • Land Stewardship in England post 2013: CAP greening and agri-environment

    What will the introduction of environmental measures in Pillar 1 mean for agri-environment schemes in the future? A topic of much debate as part of the CAP reform negotiations, this new report explores the potential impacts of greening Pillar 1 on England’s entry-level agri-environment scheme and how a future scheme could be designed to deliver more for the environment and ensure the long term sustainability of farming.

  • Designing RDPs fit for the environment

    Substantial changes to rural development regulation have been proposed which provide significant opportunities for Member States to deliver more for the environment. This report highlights some of these opportunities and sets out a series of principles and environmental priorities to help guide Member States in designing their future rural development programmes.

  • European Parliament report on sustainable competitiveness and innovation

    The CAP could, and should, be primarily to assist EU agriculture to become more internationally competitive and sustainable and to achieve this by innovation. It already has many instruments to do this, and the reforms could further assist. However the resources deployed could be far better used.

  • Delivering environmental benefits through entry-level agri-environment schemes in the EU

    A new study of the 2007-13 agri-environment schemes across the whole of EU-27 provides the first typology of ‘entry-level’ agri-environment management and environmental objectives, plus a detailed insight into the design of entry-level agri-environment schemes and calculation of payment rates in seven Member States.