Brussels, 12/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - The reformed common agricultural policy, which was supposed at the very least to stop biodiversity loss, has completely failed to live up to its promise, according to a study published in Berlin on Tuesday 12 January. The finger of blame is pointed at ever increasingly industrial farming methods, combined with the rising use of pesticides and growing overproduction.
It is, therefore, these issues that should be addressed rather than revising the habitats and birds directives, the effectiveness of which has been proved, says MEP Martin Haüsling (Greens/EFA, Germany) who commissioned journalist Stephan Börnecke to carry out the study on the worrying loss of biodiversity, with agro-industrial farming decimating biological diversity. Haüsling, the Greens/EFA Group's spokesperson on agricultural policy, is a member of both the Parliament's environment and agriculture committees.
“In its health check on the habitats and birds directives, the European Commission would be better advised to improve the way the existing nature protection programme is implemented rather than weakening these directives. The directives are not responsible for missed targets. They are effective and deliver tangible results when properly implemented”, he said at the presentation of the study.
They, however, are not enough, he argued. “To reverse biodiversity loss by 2020, the European Commission and the member states will have to make protection of nature much more of a priority. This clearly means stock has to be taken of the contribution of agriculture to biodiversity loss and gains”, he added.
No direct aid without environmental benefits. Organic farming has already met a number of its targets but that is not the case with conventional farming, Haüsling points out. This means that, “if the current system, which does not make a real link between direct payments and environmental benefits, does not meet the target of creating wider biodiversity, it must be fundamentally called into question. Public money must only be spent in the public interest”.
Article 3 of the EU strategy on biodiversity to 2020, which was adopted in 2011, states that CAP instruments should, by 2020, help to “maximise areas under agriculture across grasslands, arable land and permanent crops that are covered by biodiversity-related measures”. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)