**4. Conclusions**

#### **4.1 Directives and Regulations for the conservation of biodiversity in agricultural environments**

Today, the normative instruments to promote eco-sustainable management of rural territories have a fundamental role for the realisation of conservation strategies for the biodiversity of agricultural environments. The ecosystem services produced by the correct use of the rural territory cannot indeed be given a direct monetary value and therefore cannot be paid to the farmers. Due to this, the introduction of norms and of incentives and financing applicable to specific forms of management represent the only way to give an effective and concrete value to these positive ecosystem benefits.

In the following paragraphs, we consider the main Community legislative references connected with the planning and conservation management of agrobiodiversity.

#### **4.1.1 Rural Development Programme and cross compliance**

The Rural Development Programme (RDP) is an economic and policy tool of the European Union for non-urbanised areas. The normative framework to which it refers and its financial funding are known as FEARS. Every region had to take on Regulation (EC) 1698/05, to prepare an RDP for the period of 2007-2013 (the preceding one referred to 2000-2006), and to send it to the European Commision, which needed to evaluate and approve it. The main aims that need to be followed with the RDP regard the improvement of the competitivity in the agricultural and forestry sectors, the improvement in the quality of the rural environment, and the improvement in the quality of life and in the economic opportunities connected to the rural territories.

In exchange for the high levels of public resources directed to the agricultural sector, the intervention priorities according to the second of the objectives just introduced are dictated by the opportunity to guarantee the attribution to agriculture of a role that goes beyond the simple production of foods. This should extend to the function of providing environmental services directed at the protection of the territory and the regeneration of the basic elements, like air, water and soil. Every single farm can have access to funds provided by the RDP following their participation in specific funding applications. Among the measures considered by the RDP, there is, for example, the possibility of access to agro-environmental payments for those who take on the implementation of farm management models that focus on the conservation of the environmental quality (regulations for organic production with low environmental impact).

The Cross Compliance involves all of the farmers who from the start of 2005 intended to benefit from funding made available by the European Union through the Common Agricultural Policy itself, obviously including the payments planned by the RDP. Indeed, from that date, the farmers had to assure that they would respect a series of obligations for the correct agronomic management of the terrain, the protection of the environment, public health and animal health, and animal welfare. Non-conformity with these obligations results in the activation of a mechanism for the reduction of the direct payments to which each of farmers would have the right.

The obligations to which every farmer must make reference are subdivided into two large categories.


The Cross Compliance is based on the Regulation (EC) 1782/03, subsequently abrogated by Regulation (EC) 73/09.
