Environment, Food and Rural Affairs CommitteeWritten evidence from the Natural Environment Research Council

Introduction

1. The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is one of the UK’s seven Research Councils. It funds and carries out impartial scientific research in the sciences of the environment and trains the next generation of independent environmental scientists. Details of NERC’s research centres and research programmes are available at www.nerc.ac.uk.

2. This response is based on input from Professor Richard Pywell, Science Area Lead, Sustainable Land Use, NERC’s Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH), and Dr Joanne Chamberlain, Business Development Manager, Biodiversity & Ecosystems, CEH.

Fairness

Question 1: Whether the UK’s implementation of CAP might put English farmers at a competitive disadvantage to their regional and European counterparts

3. We are not in a position to provide a comment.

Question 2: What steps the Government might take in implementing CAP to help tenant farmers and farmers in upland areas, and to take account of issues pertaining to common land

4. We are not in a position to provide a comment.

Bureaucracy

Question 3: What steps does the Government need to take to ensure the reformed CAP will be less bureaucratic than its predecessor and what might prevent this ambition from being achieved

5. We are not in a position to provide a comment.

Question 4: How might the Government define the minimum activity required for qualification as an “active farmer”

6. We are not in a position to provide a comment.

Greening

Question 5: How should the Government ensure that CAP delivers the best environmental benefits while supporting food production

7. There have been criticisms around the CAP that demand for food in the UK might be jeopardised by the greening measures in Pillar 1, particularly that concerned with crop diversification. Defra’s proposed option to develop a national certification scheme as an alternative to the standard greening measures is likely to have considerable support, as it could be tailored to local circumstances, provide a greater degree of flexibility to the farmer and recognise them for work they are already doing in terms of environmental management. It has been suggested that this scheme could be linked to the existing Entry Level Stewardship (ELS) scheme, but for whichever scheme is adopted, the research evidence concerned with the environmental benefits of different types of land not in production but which support biodiversity and ecosystem services, should be considered. For example, a greening measure in Pillar 1 is focused on directs payments for Ecological Focus Areas (EFAs). These activities should focus on those land management regimes known to deliver for biodiversity and offer environmental protection. Research at CEH has shown that creating wildlife habitat on as little as between 1–5% of farmed land can deliver significant, multiple benefits for biodiversity, ecosystem functions associated with food production (eg pollination and pest control) and resource protection.

8. The Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) scheme has been shown to deliver greater benefits for biodiversity and ecosystem services than ELS, and this should be expanded in Pillar 2 under the Rural Development Programme to deliver further evidence-based options for farmers that demonstrate both the environmental and financial sustainability of the various prescriptions. Research at CEH has shown that the more demanding HLS management prescriptions deliver significantly greater benefits to biodiversity and ecosystem services than basic Entry Level Management. However, our research has shown that farmer training and engagement are critically important in the production and maintenance of high quality environmental habitats.

9. It will be important to maintain a high level of funding for the Rural Development Programme and the agri-environment schemes (AES) in particular, and demonstrate and train farmers on the environmental and financial benefits of the AES, attracting more into the schemes. Monitoring will continue to be important to continually provide data and evidence to policy-makers, but also to guide future rounds of CAP reform. Support for research across the EU and not just in the UK should be promoted. There is great scope for sharing innovation and best practice in the UK to our partners in Europe, and how our work in the UK can be adapted to meet the needs for varying European environments. There should be options for research through DG Agriculture and DG Environment and the new DG Research Framework programme Horizon 2020. However, we are not seeing any calls for research yet that looks at how future CAP can deliver direct environmental benefits and maintain food security across Europe as a whole.

Lessons Learnt

Question 6: What are the principal lessons the Government should learn from the implementation of the previous CAP

10. We are not in a position to provide a comment.

October 2013