**4.1.2 HNV Farmland Areas**

364 Ecosystems Biodiversity

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

In the following paragraphs, we consider the main Community legislative references

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

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

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

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

connected with the planning and conservation management of agrobiodiversity.

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

effective and concrete value to these positive ecosystem benefits.

**4.1.1 Rural Development Programme and cross compliance** 

connected to the rural territories.

low environmental impact).

farmers would have the right.

categories.

**4. Conclusions** 

**environments** 

The politics of rural development at the European level proposed the specific objective of the conservation of the agricultural areas of High Natural Value (HNV Farmland Areas) according to Regulation (EC) 1257/99. These had to be identified by 2008, and then be subjected to management modalities aimed at the conservation of biodiversity. Unfortunately, Italy is still today behind also in the determination of the HNV Farmland Areas. These HNV Farmland Areas were defined by Baldock et al. (1993, 1995) as systems of low input and with good levels of biodiversity that are characterised by the application of agricultural practices of low intensiy, a high proportion of semi-natural elements, and a high diversity in the soil coverage. Andersen et al. (2003) identified three typologies of HNV Farmland Areas:


For the identification of each typology, they indicated three types of approach:


The method is based on the application of a series of indicators and indexes that have the function of assigning to every specific context a value as a function of characteristics relative to the coverage of the soil, cultivation practices, and the presence of rare species.

The limit of this method is determined by the fact that this is essentially based on large-scale cartographic data, while not making reference to the need for detailed territorial analyses, such as floristic-vegetational investigations. These last would be a valid instrument of support both for the definition phase of the areas and in the course of the successive stages of the planning and the implementation of the management measures.

#### **4.1.3 Habitat Directive**

Directive 92/43/EEC, known as the Habitat Directive, relates to the conservation of natural and semi-natural habitats and wild flora and fauna, and it was approved by the European

Environmental Evaluation and Monitoring of Agro-Ecosystems Biodiversity 367

As already illustrated, the analysis and evaluation system described in this study allows the acquisition of numerical data starting from qualitative information of the description of the ecological characteristics of every single phytocoenosis. The integration of these data with those obtained by the cartographic procedures then allows a measurement to be provided of the level of conservation of entire territories, which can also be operated on different scales of investigation. The model is well suited to be used as a means of decisional support in the politico-administrative and management fields, and it has numerous other potential applications, many of which can be applied to the legislative instruments illustrated above,

 Support for the definition of naturalistic values, of the state of conservation of the hydrographic network, and of management measures of the agroecosystems more appropriate to guarantee the conservation of the habitats within the SCIs and SACs. The

 Identification of the HNV Farmland Areas (agricultural areas of high naturalistic value) by means of the integration of the indexes in use (diversification in the use of the soil, proportion of semi-natural elements present, intensity of the impact of agricultural practices) and the data derived from studies of the plant landscape and the application

 Determination of the conservation level of the agricultural territories, from a hypothetical starting situation, to be used as a basis for subsequent monitoring. Evaluation of the respecting of the Cross Compliance regulations on the part of the single farms, with the aim of the reaching of the objective of increasing the verifiability

 Supporting the determination of the economic value linked to the positive ecosystem benefits and measuring the ecosystem services (Finco et al., 2007) produced by specific

Determination of the value linked to activities that can be potentially funded within the

Certification of the quality of the agricultural ecosystems in the districts of quality

In conclusion, it can be stated that the realisation of such a system of investigation on a large scale will represent an excellent tool for the acquisition of useful data for the planning and implementation of management practices that are functional for the protection of the

Allegrezza, M.; Ballelli, S. & Biondi E. (1987). *Su due associazioni di vegetazione nitrofila dei* 

*settori litoranei e collinari dell'Adriatico centrale italiano*. Studi sul Territorio, Ann. Bot.

 The possibility for single farms to autocertificate the quality of their own practices. Comparison between farms that adopt different management models (e.g. organic *versus* conventional agriculture; Lazzerini et al., 2004) and the choice of the culture to

practice on the basis of the vegetational potentialities identified.

residual habitats of greatest value present in the agroecosystem.

(Roma), Vol. 45, Suppl. 5, pp. 81-88. ISSN 0365-0812.

measures should then be included in the specific management plans.

and the efficacy of the Norms imposed by the same Cross Compliance.

**4.2 Applications of the indicator system** 

which can be synthetically summarised as follows:

of the floristic-vegetational indexes.

management practices.

terms of the RDP.

production.

**5. References** 

Commission on 21 May, 1992. Each Member State then had the job of accepting and implementing this Community Normative. The man aim of the Directive is to promote the protection of biodiversity through the conservation of the natural habitats and of the wild flora and the fauna of the European territory of the signing Member States, taking into account also the economic, social, cultural and regional needs.

In Article 1, the significance of the SCI and SAC were defined:


Each Member State identified the sites in their own territory that are fundamental for the conservation of the species and habitats of Community interest and proposed to the European Commission their own list of pSCIs (as stated in Article 4 of the Directive). On the basis of this list, the Commission drew up the list of SCIs. Within six years from the declaration of an SCI, a specific area is declared an SAC by the Member State.

Instead, the SPAs (Special Protection Areas) were created according to the Bird Directive (79/409/EEC), with the aim of protecting in a rigorous way the sites in which ornithological species live, as contained in attachment I of the same Directive.

The combination of the SCIs (which will anyway become a SACs according to the procedure indicated above) and the SPAs form the European ecological network known as Natura 2000 and defined in Article 3 of the Habitat Directive. The Natura 2000 Network is a combination of sites characterised by the presence of habitats and species of both animals and plants that are of Community interest (indicated in attachments I and II of the Directive), the function of which is to guarantee the long-term survival of the biodiversity, in all of its components, present on the European continent, recognising the interdependence of the biotic, abiotic and anthropic elements.

Article 6 of the Directive defines the management of the sites of Natura 2000 (including the ZSPs). The obligation derived from the Directive is that of adopting opportune measures to avoid the following:


The instrument of implementation of the Habitat Directive within the SCIs and SPAs is represented by the management plan. The Habitat Directive assumes great importance in the rural environment because with a large part of the sites identified by the Member States there are agricultural territories that are more or less extensive. These areas are often identifiable as HNV Farmland Areas, in which the presence of man and of agro-forestrypastural activities have favoured the creation of a mosaic of environments, which are characterised by a high level of biological variety. Within these areas, the protection of the traditional cultural systems based on extensive agricultural techniques should be favoured. These considerations must be examined and evaluated carefully at the moment of the drawing up of the management plans.
