SHERPA has recently published the position paper on ‘Rural policies to protect and enhance biodiversity through Landscape features’.
During 2020, SHERPA piloted the process through which a position paper is produced based on the work carried out by the MAPs. To this end, three MAPs took part in the pilot exercise from Alqueva (Portugal), Emilia-Romagna (Italy) and Slovenia.
The topic initially focused on finding indicators that could show the success of interventions, currently being designed in Member States’ CAP Strategic Plans, to protect and enhance biodiversity. However, the MAPs discussed also about the needs and types of interventions, thus switching the focus to landscape features and their contribution to biodiversity.
The document highlights the opportunity to bring together existing, dispersed monitoring systems, supplemented with new high-quality information from earth observation platforms or innovative techniques, to provide high-level indicators of long-term impacts.
The pilot process identified a clear need for further measures to support interventions at landscape level on agricultural land. Technical support should include further development of open-access, user-friendly digital mapping tools, which integrate increasingly available data about natural capital.
“Policy must be driven by inputs from scientists and citizens as well as farmers. The MAPs have begun to demonstrate that they have a role in this.“
Browse through and read the Multi-Actor Platforms’ Position Paper on the topic: