Agriculture & Land Management

Our Work

Rural land provides a range of environmental and cultural goods and services that are highly valued by the public. This includes the diverse landscapes that are characteristic of local agricultural and forest systems in different parts of Europe and the birds, wildflowers, bees and other animals associated with these. The way the land is managed also affects the quality of our air, soils and water and can play an important role in helping to improve the resilience of land to climate change and natural disasters, such as flooding or fires. With an ever increasing demand for food, timber and energy there continue to be significant pressures placed on the environment by agricultural and forestry production. These pressures will be exacerbated by the effects of climate change. The sustainable use of land requires coordinated cross-sectoral policies designed to optimise our use of rural land to deliver food, timber and energy sustainably, together with environmental goods and services.

IEEP’s experts on agriculture, land management, biodiversity, climate, energy, soils and water are well placed to assess the environmental implications of different types of land management and land use changes. Key to our work is embedding environmental and sustainability considerations into policies influencing both the production and consumption of food, timber and energy.

More about our work in this area...

Latest in Sustainable Land Use

  • Waste-based biofuels sector needs smarter EU 2030 package to realize its high potential

    A robust sustainability framework and ambitious decarbonisation targets for transport fuels in 2030 are necessary to ensure efficient waste utilisation and the long-term reduction of transport emissions.

  • How to design EU biofuels policy for post-2020?

    IEEP has organised two parallel workshops in Brussels and London to discuss with key EU and UK policy makers and stakeholders the future for EU biofuels policy post 2020.

  • Options for sustainable food and agriculture in the EU

    How should Europe respond to the increased demands on our food and agriculture systems arising from global population growth, changing diets, and competing demands on agricultural land? This report offers a view on how the EU could play a role in meeting these challenges in the coming decades and sets out some of the options which merit particular attention.

  • Europe’s role in feeding the world in 2050

    IEEP presents views on how Europe should respond to the increased demands on our food and agriculture systems arising from global population growth, changing diets, and competing demands on agricultural land.

  • Ministers place biofuels in a policy vacuum

    Energy Ministers today failed to agree reforms to the EU laws that promote the use of biofuels for transport. Current EU legislation is flawed and unfit for the purpose of delivering verifiable greenhouse gas emission reductions from the transport sector.

  • Time to decide – What’s at stake as European energy ministers vote on biofuels?

    Europe’s Energy Ministers must seize the opportunity to set future EU biofuels policy on a more sustainable trajectory.

  • Interactions between climate change and agriculture; and between biodiversity and agriculture in Europe

    What should be Europe’s role in feeding the world in 2050? This IEEP report for the European Parliament describes options for increasing the productivity of European agriculture whilst adapting to climate change, reducing emissions, and providing biodiversity and ecosystem service benefits from agriculture.

  • Recycling wastes and residues for sustainable bioenergy and biomaterials

    What should be Europe’s role in feeding the world in 2050, considering competing demands for land? This IEEP report for the European Parliament describes options for reusing food wastes and agricultural and forestry residues for biomaterials and bioenergy.

  • Assessing Scotland’s progress on the environmental agenda

    How much progress is Scotland making on the environmental agenda? Can Scotland fulfill its growing aspirations to become an environmental front runner in Europe? This new report explores these questions in relation to the farmed environment, Marine Protection Areas and climate mitigation.

  • Sectoral resource mobilisation to implement global biodiversity targets

    There is an urgent need to find sufficient resources to enable developing countries to implement the global targets for biodiversity by 2020. Financing the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity from different sectoral funding flows can complement global biodiversity financing.

  • Ecosystem services of boreal mires and peatlands in Finland

    Mire ecosystems are well-known for their unique species and habitats of high conservation value and they also provide a range of benefits to our societies and economies. This publication outlines the results of a pioneering project that aimed to identify and valuate ecosystem services provided by pristine mires and managed peatlands in Finland.

  • Sustainable management of natural resources with a focus on water and agriculture

    Can sustainable management of natural resources in Europe’s agricultural sector contribute to sustainable water use? What other sectors have a role to play in significantly improving water use across Europe and what are the good practices and tools that are available? A new report for the European Parliament explores these questions.

  • IEEP reports to the Science and Technology Options (STOA) Panel of the European Parliament

    Recycling for bioenergy and options for climate-resilient agriculture which benefits biodiversity: presentation to the Science and Technology Options Panel of the European Parliament

  • Environment undermined in CAP deal

    An attempt by the European Commission to place the environment more centrally within agricultural policy has been comprehensively watered down in the final agreement.

  • Biofuels and ILUC – Q&A

    Recurring questions on biofuels and ILUC are addressed in IEEP’s latest report to help build a robust policy to deal with ILUC and other impacts of large scale production of first generation biofuels.

  • Natural capital in a Nordic context

    A report for the Nordic Council of Ministers reviewing five different approaches to natural capital accounting and exploring their links with biodiversity and ecosystems.

  • Press release - Shifting away from conventional biofuels

    15 May – A new report produced by IEEP for ActionAid suggests that a sustainable advanced biofuel sector in the UK could not only lead to thousands of new jobs but also help to deliver better greenhouse gas (GHG) savings and improve the overall environmental and social performance of the biofuel sector.

  • Land as an Environmental Resource

    How can we meet the different and often conflicting demands we make on our limited supply of rural land in Europe? A more strategic approach to the way in which land is used is needed than has been the case in the past. This report for DG Environment looks at the data, the challenges and the policy options for Europe.

  • A greener CAP: still within reach?

    The greening of the CAP hangs in the balance in the final negotiations; a synthesis of key issues and requirements.

  • Land use mapping for sustainable biofuels

    IEEP and WWF join forces to define criteria and principles to guide the mapping of appropriate land use to ensure sustainable biofuel crops.