- High Nature Value (HNV) farming systems support farmland biodiversity through low intensity practices that incorporate high proportions of semi-natural vegetation and natural features. They introduce spatial and temporal diversity important for ecological stability. - Identifying HNV farming requires understanding livestock densities, nutrient inputs, and proportion of rough grazing land. Some European Union member states have developed methods to map HNV, though it remains a complex task. - Maintaining HNV farming systems was an important policy priority in the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. However, directing adequate funding specifically for HNV support post-2013 is uncertain and will depend on political will within member states.

1. Supporting High Nature
Value farming systems
Davy McCracken
Countryside Management: Action for Biodiversity
Cross-campus video conference, 18 October 2011 1

2. Taking action for any
biodiversity concern involves:
• Recognise what the issues are
• Understand the processes involved
• Raise awareness of the concern and the issues
• Ensure they are a policy priority
• Identify: how much, where and in what condition
• Develop and deliver appropriate funding
mechanisms at relevant scale
• Monitor outcomes and adapt the
approach where necessary

3. Taking action for HNV
farming systems:
• Recognise what the issues are
• Understand the processes involved
• Raise awareness of the concern and the issues
• Ensure they are a policy priority
• Identify: how much, where and in what condition
• Develop and deliver appropriate funding
mechanisms at relevant scale
• Monitor outcomes and adapt the
approach where necessary

4. Pressures on farmland
biodiversity
• Intensification of
management practices
• Abandonment of
management practices
• Simplification of
agricultural landscapes
Intensity of agriculture
Graph from presentation by: Hoogeveen Y.R., Petersen J.E. & Gabrielsen P. (2001). Agriculture and biodiversity in Europe. Background report to the High-Level
European Conference on Agriculture and Biodiversity, 5–7 June, Paris. STRA-CO/AGRI (2001) 17. Council of Europe/UNEP.

5. Farmland and
biodiversity
• Over 45% (173 million ha) of EU27
• Recognised that habitats and landscapes of High
Nature Value ARE intimately associated with
farming practices
• Taking land out of agricultural production is
not the answer for farmland biodiversity
RATHER
• it is essential to ensure type and intensity of
farm management is appropriate

6. HNV farming systems are
of HNV because:
• High proportion of semi-natural vegetation
• Lot of natural vegetation and features
• Constraints on type AND timing of
management
• Constraints on grazing and cropping pressure
• Limits to number of animals and
need to move these between pastures

7. HNV farming systems are
of ecological importance:
• Longevity of systems allows ecological
„predictability‟ and „stability‟
• They introduce spatial diversity (especially
patchwork of habitats)
• They introduce temporal diversity (especially
patchwork of management)
• Provide links between habitats/landscapes
(whether in close proximity or far apart)

8. Underlying principle
was, and remains:
• A large proportion of EU farmland is of particularly
high nature conservation value
• That market pressures/support limits are increasingly
making these farms economically unviable
• Intensifying/abandoning the farming systems on
these farms would adversely impact the HNV
• There was therefore a case for
considering directing additional
financial support to these farms to
help maintain the HNV

9. EU 27 RDP priorities
• Axis 2 (Sustainable land management)
targeted at “biodiversity and
preservation of high nature value
farming and forestry systems, water,
and climate change. “

10. Increasing focus on
HNV decline
We would also
suggest that …. the
concept of High
Nature Value farming
should be a high
priority objective.

11. Taking action for HNV
farming systems :
• Recognise what the issues are
• Understand the processes involved
• Raise awareness of the concern and the issues
• Ensure they are a policy priority
• Identify: how much, where and in what condition
• Develop and deliver appropriate funding
mechanisms at relevant scale
• Monitor outcomes and adapt the
approach where necessary

12. High Nature Value
farming systems
 The term “HNV farming” dates from
1993 -Nature Conservation and New
Directions in the CAP
 This and subsequent reports highlighted
that the common characteristic of HNV
farming was a low intensity use of:
• Livestock densities per ha
• Nutrient inputs (nitrogen)
• Biocides

13. Identification of HNV
13

14. HNV characteristics
14

15. Identifying HNV
Surrogate: Proportion of Utilisable
Agricultural Area consisting of
rough grazing. Potentially HNV
when rough grazing is > 70% UAA
Surrogate: Livestock Units per
available forage ha. Potentially
HNV when < 0.2 LU/ha on rough
grazing and < 1.0 LU/ha on in-bye
ground, i.e. < 0.44 LU/ha at „whole
farm‟ level where rough grazing is >
70% UAA

16. Identifying HNV in
Scotland
16

17. Identifying HNV in
Scotland
17

18. Identifying HNV in
Scotland
18

19. What’s happening
elsewhere?
19

20. Identification of HNV
• Complex - but can be
done
• Some EU Member
States have taken the
need to do this more
seriously than others
20

21. Taking action for HNV
farming systems :
• Recognise what the issues are
• Understand the processes involved
• Raise awareness of the concern and the issues
• Ensure they are a policy priority
• Identify: how much, where and in what condition
• Develop and deliver appropriate funding
mechanisms at relevant scale
• Monitor outcomes and adapt the
approach where necessary

22. Support for HNV
Currently:
• EU27 spend on CAP = € 53 billion
per year
• Old EU15, Pillar 1 = 85% of CAP
spend. Only c.1.3% to 4% of CAP
spent on agri-environment per se
(and no HNV focus)
• New EU12, Pillar 1 = < 60% of CAP
spend. Some support specifically for
HNV
22

23. Support for HNV
CAP post 2013:
• European Commission looking for major
changes to funding and support
mechanisms for agriculture as a whole
• HNV only one part of the bigger picture
• Likely that HNV will not be stated as a
CAP priority BUT will remain an indicator
against which RDPs will be judged
• Political Will and Pressure will be a big
driver in the shape of reformed CAP and
whether HNV remains a MS priority 23

24. A focus for discussion:
Are HNV farming systems the only way to
maintain the associated high nature conservation
value habitats and species?
What will happen if the EU doesn‟t require that
Member States direct additional financial support
at HNV farming systems?
Where should Member States take the funding
for such support from elsewhere within the CAP?
What are the implications of taking that support
from elsewhere within the CAP?
What more needs to be done to ensure that HNV
farming systems remain a CAP priority in
Member States post-2013? 24

25. Davy McCracken
davy.mccracken@sac.ac.uk
www.sac.ac.uk/ruralpolicycentre
An HNV Farming System Policy Briefing can be found at:
http://www.knowledgescotland.org/briefings.php?id=64/ 25

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