Assessing the risk of farmland abandonment in the EU

An expert panel of European scientists in fields related to land abandonment (bio-physical / land suitability, farm structure, farm economics, land market, regional development, socio and economic factors in rural areas) were tasked to identify main drivers of farmland abandonment in Europe. Two sets of criteria for assessing the risk have been suggested: Low farm stability and viability was estimated through drivers on ‘low farm income’ (D2), ‘lack of investments on the farm’ (D3), ‘farm-holder’s age’ (D4), ‘farm manager qualifications’ (D5), ‘low farm size’ (D8), ‘commitments taken by farmers in specific management scheme’ (D9). Negative regional context was estimated through indicators on ‘weak land market’ (D1), ‘low population density and remoteness’ from market opportunities and services (D7). Each of these drivers was calculated individually; an assessment was done to provide relevance and robustness of results, corresponding maps were produced. The results suggested a first group of powerful drivers (policy relevance, analytical soundness, data availability and robustness) composed of: ‘weak land market’ (D1), ‘low farm income’ (D2), ‘low density population and remoteness’ (D7). The second group of drivers with ‘lack of investments on the farm’ (D3) and ‘farm-holder’s age’ (D4) were policy relevant but reliability was lower when using European datasets. The third group of drivers (‘farm manager qualifications’ (D5), ‘low farm size’ (D8), and ‘commitments taken by farmers in specific management scheme’ (D9)) showed some deficiencies in analytical soundness and/or data reliability. They were not further used in the analysis. In order to produce a risk indicator of ‘farmland abandonment’, composite indices were developed based on Principal Component Analysis carried-out on the normalised values of the individual drivers. The normalisation procedure was performed at two different levels: (a) EU27 level as an attempt to elaborate a risk index covering EU27 in an homogeneous manner; and (b) MS level. For the composite indices, further analysis was done at NUTS2 level to relate those flagged with higher risk to the holding’s farm-types. It results that extensive and traditional farming systems with high proportions of permanent crops or permanent grasslands are the most frequent farm-types found in NUTS2 at risk.JRC.H.4-Monitoring Agricultural Resource

Analysis of Farmland Abandonment and the Extent and Location of Agricultural Areas that are Actually Abandoned or are in Risk to be Abandoned

Farmland abandonment (FLA) can be defined as the cessation of agricultural activities on a given surface of land and not taken by another activity (such as urbanisation or afforestation). This process attracts the attention of policy-makers both at national and EU level, in particular within the context of the Rural Development Policy. And, considering its importance in environmental and socio-economic terms, it is necessary to better understand the geographic distribution and strength of farmland abandonment trends in the EU-27, and to develop indicators to identify the most important farmland abandonment tendencies. The first aim of this study was to establish the state of the art concerning farmland abandonment (definition, type) and methodologies for identifying/quantifying this phenomenon (dataset, period of analysis, scale). Then, it was about contributing to a new definition of Less Favoured Areas by assessing the driving forces of farmland abandonment and preparing the guidelines for agri-environmental indicator Nr 14 [COM2006 (508final)] by evaluating the state and risk of farmland abandonment. The proposed methodology was based on two main elements: the variation of the UAA and the definition of rural areas. After identifying clear definitions for each variable, the way to consider the main flows of land use changes was studied. Due to a lack of accurate data at the appropriate scale, farmland afforestation could not be separated from the flow of FLA and the flow from farmland to sealed soil was estimated based on the hypothesis that it was mainly located in urban areas where the population density is high or increases very fast. The methodology was tested in three of the main agricultural countries in the EU-27 in terms of surface (France, Spain and Poland). Then, five regions were chosen to cover different contexts where a high level of FLA was observed and interviews of experts and stakeholders completed the study. Based on the results on the main causes of FLA, indicators of risk were proposed and recommendations were formulated to improve the methodology and datasets.JRC.H.5-Rural, water and ecosystem resource

Best Practices in Port Management: An Assessment of Two Ports

Corporation X owns and operates Port Y in Indonesia and will begin using Port Z in Australia, a public port, in late 2008. The ports are used to export copper concentrate, while Port Y is also used to move commodities, cargo, and people. Analysis based on field observations and personnel interviews revealed strengths and weaknesses in best management practices at each location. As the Corporation aims to demonstrate best port practices, this assessment of environmental practices and protocols addresses handling of cargo, protocols for ships, environmental controls, monitoring, and general practices. Research found that Port Y could lessen environmental impacts by enclosing the copper concentrate conveyor system. Best practices at Port Y include ballast water management and monitoring practices. Port Z could improve its management practices by increasing environmental monitoring frequency; best practices include movement of copper concentrate and air quality maintenance

Farmland abandonment in Europe:Identification of drivers and indicators, and development of a composite indicator of risk

Accounting for more than half of the European Union's (EU) territory, agriculture ensures food production, manages important natural resources and supports socio-economic development of rural areas. Moreover, it is estimated that 50% of all plant and animal species (including some of that are listed in the EU Habitat Directive) depend on agricultural practices. The continuation of appropriate agricultural land management is essential to ensure these primary functions. Avoidance of farmland abandonment is therefore an important rationale for the EU's Common Agricultural Policy which requires improved knowledge of this phenomenon at the European level. This study assesses the risk of farmland abandonment in the 27 EU Member States. It summarizes the work performed by an expert panel of European scientists and national representatives which aimed to identify the main drivers of farmland abandonment in Europe, to define indicators for assessing its risk of occurrence and to test the value of European-wide data sources to achieve these aims. Drivers were identified under two rationales: low farm stability and viability, and negative regional context. Indicators were defined using recent socio-economic farm data and geospatial datasets. Some indicators were then combined to make a composite risk indicator. Regions with higher risk of farmland abandonment are located in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden and Ireland. This paper demonstrates the challenges of performing a European-wide assessment of a phenomenon influenced by drivers whose effects vary at local levels. Other problems encountered are data heterogeneity in terms of spatial resolution and quality, as well as access to micro-data (local level data). High spatial resolution European datasets measuring farmland abandonment are needed to validate the defined indicators as well as to benchmark the methodology. Furthermore, such data could be used to establish a weighting system for the drivers