Agriculture & Land Management

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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

Redesigning the CAP to deliver public goods

As a contribution to the CAP reform debate, this report considers options for redesigning the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to maximise the delivery of public goods, particularly in relation to the environment and rural vitality.
Developing a Territorial Approach for the CAP

A timely discussion paper explaining how a territorial approach can be developed within rural development policy and other aspects of the CAP.
Costs of delivering environmental benefits through agriculture and forestry management

For the first time, this report provides an estimate of the scale of funding needed to achieve environmental outcomes through agricultural and forestry management in the EU to 2020.
The Land-Use Implications of EU Bioenergy Policy: Going Beyond ILUC

A new IEEP briefing discusses some of the modelling work that is undertaken in support of quantifying the land use change impact of biofuel use.
Public Goods and Public Intervention in Agriculture

What is the justification for spending a substantial sum on supporting agriculture in Europe? Is the principle public money for public goods? If so, what are the public goods, how ...
Farmland Abandonment in the EU: an Assessment of Trends and Prospects

Assessment of recent agricultural abandonment in the EU and its causes, and likely future abandonment according to expected trends in drivers
Valuing and Conserving Ecosystem Services: a Scoping Case Study in the Danube Basin

The report for WWF provides an assessment of the value and status of some key ecosystem services in the Danube Basin, and some policy instruments to support them.
The Indirect Land Use Change Impact of the Use of Biofuels in the EU

A new IEEP report analyses the indirect land use change (ILUC) impact of the substantial additional biofuel usage that will be generated up to 2020 by the targets under the EU renewable energy Directive. The report has recently been updated to include all 27 NREAPs.
Major Study on Public Goods Published by IEEP

The Common Agricultural Policy plays a critical role in helping farmers to deliver environmental goods and services, provided that policies are targeted in the right way. This is the key message of an ...
Developing a National Agri-environment Programme for Turkey

This Handbook presents many of the key outputs, recommendations and accumulated expertise from a project entitled “Supporting the Development of a National Agri-environment Programme for Turkey” that was undertaken from January 2006 – November 2008...
News: Guidance Document to the Member States on the Application of the HNV Impact Indicator

IEEP has produced a guidance document for Member States on how to monitor changes in HNV Farmland and Forests - corresponding to a suite of indicators in the CMEF to assess the effectiveness of rural development ...
Developing a High Nature Value Farming area indicator

This study provides a framework for compiling compatible information on HNV farmland across Europe, laying some of the foundations for longer term improvements in data...

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