Tying agriculture to environment
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) represents all the EU's agricultural subsidies, programmes and agreements related to the sector. It is vital for the EU to continuously study the impact of environmental agreements under the CAP in order to ensure that they achieve their intended aims and revise them where necessary. In mid 2004, the EU-funded project 'Impact of environmental agreements of the CAP' (Meacap) began investigating the CAP and its impacts. It developed methodology to assess the CAP and address needed reforms, producing a report on recent changes in the CAP and laying the groundwork for further upgrades. The project's aims were propagated through the Meacap website, email campaigns and leaflets. In the second stage of the project, Meacap assessed environmental measures, bioenergy supply in agriculture, forestry issues and agricultural biodiversity. The project evaluated mitigation policies related to agriculture, feasibility of mitigation options and modelling approaches for policy analysis. In the third and last stage, the project quantified carbon gains of mitigation measures in forestry. It outlined expected impact of the Kyoto Protocol on European forestry, listed biodiversity measures and studied mitigation costs tied to bioenergy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The project also analysed policy instruments related to these topics, an accomplishment that could help more targeted policymaking in the future. Several workshops were held in different EU countries to discuss associated issues and case studies such as semi-subsistence farming, land abandonment, biodiversity measures and much more. The project's final meeting enabled stakeholders to discuss research findings and investigate policy implications. Meacap's final report examined the obligations on the EU related to multilateral agreements and the Kyoto Protocol, assessing their implications on the CAP. The study proposed different measures to upgrade the CAP and meet its commitments, helping to ensure that environmental considerations are addressed for years to come.