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New results-based payments network to support biodiversity and nature restoration efforts in EU agricultural landscapes rolled out in Ireland, led by ATU
A new Results Based Payments Scheme (RBPS) Network to support biodiversity and nature restoration efforts in agricultural landscapes in EU member States had been rolled out, led by Atlantic Technological University (ATU).
Titled “RBPS NETforNature” the EU LIFE project led by Dr James Moran, Senior Lecturer in Biology and Ecology at the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment in ATU Galway, is partnered by Suske Consulting, Austria, and the Institute of the Republic of Slovenia for Nature Conservation (ZRSVN), Slovenia.
Member States are required to improve the status of biodiversity on farmland under the Nature Restoration Regulation. The current revision of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and drafting of National Nature Restoration Plans offers a unique opportunity to design effective measures for nature restoration to benefit people, nature and food.
Dr James Moran, RBPS NETforNature Project Lead, says “Experience across Europe for many years has shown that incorporating results-based payments schemes as part of a package of measures on farmland can enhance farmland biodiversity. They aim to reward farmers for essential ecosystem services they provide to society that are not accounted for in food markets, including landscape quality, protecting nature, protecting water quality and carbon sequestration. Through this project and collaboration with a broad community of practice across Europe we expect to accelerate the uptake and effective implementation of RBPS for biodiversity and nature restoration on farmland across the EU.”
This two-year project takes place during a key period in the development of the next policy cycle of CAP and the drafting and finalising of member states National Nature Restoration Plans.
Agri-environment payment schemes have been in operation across the EU since the 1990s with variable results. Most of these are action based where payments to farmers are dependent on delivery of prescribed actions. In recent years results-based payments schemes where farmers payments are dependent on delivery of certain results have shown promising biodiversity outcomes across EU regions. However, results-based payments have not reached their full potential, and the EU Commission has identified that supports are required for effective design of programmes, taking into account the diversity of EU regions, farming systems and the range of environment and cultural contexts.
RBPS NetforNature seeks to build an EU-wide peer-to-peer network to help Member States design, pilot, monitor and evaluate RBPS, to address the decline of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. In order to build this network, the project is currently looking for experts on RBPS across EU Member States (except for Ireland, Austria, and Slovenia, where project partners will act as contact points). These experts, or National Contact Points (NCPs), will assess the status of RBPS in their country, help deliver a training, a workshop and a field trip, and support knowledge-sharing in the national language.
With a value of €945,000 over two years, the RBPS NETforNature project is 90% funded by the EU LIFE programme with the remainder funded through project partners own resources and co-funding from the Government of Ireland (Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine; and The National Parks and Wildlife Service).The LIFE Programme is the EU Programme for Environment and Climate Action. It is one of the key contributors to the European Green Deal which aims to transform the EU into a fair and prosperous society, with a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy where there are no net emissions of greenhouse gases in 2050 and where economic growth is decoupled from resource use; and protect, conserve and enhance the EU’s natural capital, and protect the health and well-being of citizens from environment and climate related risks and impacts.
For further details on RBPS NETforNature, please email Antoinette Franklin: antoinette.franklin@atu.ie
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