30 March 2017, Brussels, Belgium

The European Commission invites you to a conference on results-based payments for biodiversity achievements in agriculture.

The mid-term review of the EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2020 showed a continuing decline of biodiversity in agricultural areas and concluded that greater efforts are needed to reverse the negative trend. Agri-environment-climate measures (AEC), one of the main instruments supporting biodiversity under the Common Agricultural Policy, are mainly delivered through a management-based payment mode. A results-based approach has been recognised as a promising approach to potentially increase the effectiveness and efficiency of such measures for biodiversity.

With the financial support from the European Parliament, the European Commission launched three pilot on-farm projects (Romania, Ireland/Spain, England) on results-based payment schemes for the enhancement of biodiversity. The aim is to provide better understanding of the key aspects of such schemes (design, implementation, monitoring, cost-effectiveness), demonstrate their effectiveness and explore the potential for their use in the Common Agricultural Policy.

This conference will share the first outputs of the projects and facilitate discussions among broad range of experts, policy makers, implementing authorities and stakeholders. Participants will be invited to discuss the potential of the results-based approach for the delivery of biodiversity benefits in agriculture and how that potential could be better utilised, particularly in the context of post-2020 Common Agricultural Policy debate.

The agenda will follow closer to the event date. In the meantime please find more information on results-based payments for biodiversity at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/rbaps and https://rbaps.eu/.

If you would like to attend please send an email to RSVP by Thursday 16 March 2017 to Fabian Clement at Fabian.CLEMENT@ec.europa.eu.