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SAC Speakers Stress a Reformed CAP Should Target Environmental Issues
Davy McCracken talks about the challenges facing climate change and biodiversity (opens in new window)
Two SAC speakers joined Scottish Ministers and others at the recent conference “a Future Common Agricultural Policy for Scotland”, held in Dynamic Earth, Edinburgh. The aim was to help develop Scottish Government policy on the shape of the CAP post-2013.
Graham Kerr (Group Manager of SAC Environment & Design) and Davy McCracken (Reader in Agricultural Ecology and Associate of SAC’s Rural Policy Centre) both spoke during a session, chaired by Brian Pack, addressing the challenges to be addressed within CAP reform.
Both presentations addressed the challenges facing climate change and biodiversity respectively. Graham and Davy argued that large-scale actions are needed on the ground if these issues are to be addressed effectively. Graham, for example, argued that to meet climate change mitigation targets set for agricultural will require the active engagement from 90% of Scotland’s farmers. Davy emphasised that the scale of loss and fragmentation of habitats in the lowland is such that only actions focussed on re-establishing ecological connectivity at the landscape scale will stand any chance of redressing the balance.
Ending his presentation Davy said;
“Changes to the way that overall CAP support is delivered need to put an increased focus on biodiversity actions and target them effectively. If this does not happen, then the biodiversity that underpins the ecosystem services arising from European agriculture, will continue to be adversely impacted, including production. That would result in a significant loss in the resilience and capacity of our farming systems to cope with shocks and pressures, such as those arise from climate change.”
The conference was held at a crucial stage for policy development in Europe. The decisions that Europe makes about the CAP in the next year or two will set the agenda and map out the future for Europe’s farming industry between 2014 and 2020. The Scottish Government will take the views expressed by all the conference speakers into account when deciding what issues that Scotland will emphasise in the ongoing debate about what the CAP post-2013.