HELSINKI COMMISSION HELCOM AGRI/ENV FORUM 3/2012 HELCOM Baltic Agricultural and Environmental Forum Third Meeting Warsaw, Poland, 7-8 May

Agenda Item 3 Implementation of agriculture-related actions in the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan Document code: 3/5 Date: 30.4.2012 Submitted by: Baltic COMPASS Project

BALTIC COMPASS EMERGING FINDINGS FOR REGIONAL DIALOGUE Baltic COMPASS (Comprehensive Policy Actions and Sustainable Solutions for Agriculture in the Baltic Sea Region) has grown out of a large number of international projects in the field of land use, agriculture, water and environment related to the protection of the Baltic Sea. Specifically, Baltic COMPASS is a response to the need for a transnational approach to reduce eutrophication of the Baltic Sea and to build adaptive management capacity with respect to international frameworks, EU directives and the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP). The project particularly aims to remedy the gaps in the stakeholders' capacity and resources to combat euthrophication and communicate on the different policy levels, and the lack of trust between the environmental and agricultural sectors. The project aims to support win-win solutions for agriculture, environment and the people throughout the Baltic Sea Region. 22 partners from authorities, interest organizations and research institutes in Finland, Russia, Belarus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Denmark and Sweden constitutes the partnership. The project runs from December 2009 until December 2012 and has a budget of 6,7 MEUR co-financed by EU Baltic Sea Region Programme. The attached document contains emerging findings of the Baltic COMPASS Project for open regional dialogue with relevant stakeholders on the presented issues. Baltic COMPASS is collecting initial reactions from national stakeholders to these messages as well as discussing these at other fora. The outcome is expected to be a regional summary and final development of policy and management recommendations from the project on most relevant findings and issues. In addition special regional governance dialogues are launched by the project on i.a. phosphorus, wetlands, and biogas, where collect of national stakeholder perspectives and inputs to the questions is carried out. The phosphorus dialogue will for instance, deliver specific contribution to the EU green paper on phosphorus from the BSR. At this point the Baltic COMPASS keeps the emerging findings and the governance dialogues as separate processes under different Work Packages of the Project.

The Meeting is invited to discuss presented issues and to provide feedback on relevance and priority of the issues to the Project.

Note by Secretariat: FOR REASONS OF ECONOMY, THE DELEGATES ARE KINDLY REQUESTED TO BRING THEIR OWN COPIES OF THE DOCUMENTS TO THE MEETING

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From common challenges to common management innovations

Baltic Compass emerging findings for regional dialogue

The following statements and recommendations have been formulated within the Baltic Compass partnership through a process of stakeholder interaction and consolidation of the challenges perceived in the interplay of agriculture and environment in the Baltic Sea Region. These emerging findings shall serve as discussion points for further testing, debate and dialogue on the Baltic Sea regional level during 2012, the remaining part of the project. Carrying these messages further will involve a much wider group of stakeholders in the Baltic Sea Region. These messages may be adopted by appropriate stakeholders and actors in the Baltic Sea Region for further processing. It is also the aim to produce selected common regional recommendations for agri-environmental policy formulation and management. In addition to these emerging findings, Baltic COMPASS project carries out more profound dialogue on selected critical themes, such as phosphorus, outcome-based ecosystem service payments, biogas and wetlands, by, for example, arranging regional seminars on the issues.

A triangular pathway to sustainable agriculture The contributions of Baltic Compass should help in constructing a roadmap to proceed along three complementary pathways towards sustainable agriculture:

Compulsory drivers Voluntary drivers Private sector engagement

Adequate environmental and In order to reach the Promotion of the attractiveness health legislation in place and environmental objectives in the of agri-environment fully enforced across the Baltic BSR there needs to be a wider innovations and investments as Sea Region. use and promotion of voluntary business opportunities (shared measures than for most parts of interest with broader private the EU. sector / win-win).

Indicators: Nitrate directive Indicators: Area under Indicators: Commercial fully implemented in voluntary agri-environment companies involved in the accordance with the ecological measures throughout the network of agri-technological conditions and harmonized region supported through CAP, innovations, commercial banks with the Water Framework LEADER and national programs. involved in agri-environmental Directive (WFD); the Helsinki lending. Convention fully implemented, supporting legislation implemented (phosphorus indices, phosphorus norms, manure standards); establishment of joint regional political initiatives.

Emerging findings

1. Agriculture builds security, sustainability and rural attractiveness in the BSR. However, cases of persisting sub-optimal farm management (over-fertilization, resource inefficiency, over-exploitation of soil) and pursuit of short-term profit interests are often the result of one-dimensional policies and jeopardize the interests and development of the broader agricultural community.

 Stronger and precise enforcement of already existing legislation is needed to support a long-term positive development of the BSR agricultural sector as a whole.

2. The EU provides legislative frameworks to control diffuse source pollution from agriculture such as the Nitrate Directive. Today the implementation of the Nitrate Directive varies a great deal between countries creating an uneven playing field between BSR countries.

 BSR countries should agree on a timetable for harmonizing implementation of the Nitrate Directive in the drainage.

3. BSR actors should initiate a regional development study of the agricultural and bio-economic sectors outlining future business opportunities, incentives and policies needed.

4. The EU CAP alone is an insufficient tool to bring about the change that is needed to protect the Baltic Sea and promote sustainability within the agricultural community. However, within the ongoing CAP adaptation there are opportunities for combining agricultural development and protection of the Baltic Sea. Some of these opportunities which could be considered are:

a. Prioritise agri-environment compensation in environmentally sensitive areas.

b. Expand measures for permanent grasslands, buffer zones, reduced tillage practices and green-cover crops on arable land in all environmental sensitive areas with economic incentives.

c. Introduce new measures/program with a focus and incentives for farmers to improve the whole comprehensive farm nutrient management cycle.

d. Promote collective measures on a landscape level.

e. Ensure that permanent grasslands in the BSR will be exempt from the requirement for crop rotation on the farm level, as this requirement can lead to drastically increased losses of nutrients to water when grasslands are ploughed.

f. Consider multiple benefits of measures as a way to promote resilience for agriculture in the ecosystem.

5. Current knowledge of BAT and BMP in agriculture should guide the implementation of agri-environment measures. There is an increasing amount of knowledge available on the impact of farm scale measures and the right scale of application.

 BSR countries should agree on a minimum of area cover for the most cost-efficient agri- environment measures and establish a joint program for monitoring, demonstration and developing these actions.

6. Support for agri-environmental measures within the RDPs are often activity-based rather than outcome- based, in that the payments are based on actions performed, not the effect of the actions. Rural development policies should promote payments for farmers for goods they produce than be compensated for estimated lost income.

7. There is a lack of cooperation among agricultural and rural interests on the BSR level. One of the few examples of regional cooperation in place is the the Agri-environment Forum (AEF) established by HELCOM to work with its marine protection mandate.

 A BSR based Agriculture and Rural Development Partnership should be initiated that is linked with the work of HELCOM but independent and with a broader mandate. The mandate can emerge from initiatives and networks of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region and provide guidance, tools and a partner platform for implementation of possible European Parliament pilot actions in agriculture.

8. Knowledge about the efficiency and applicability of different agri-environment measures is increasing. However, BSR level assessments in that direction should be regarded with caution as assessments of diffuse source pollution loads still are connected with a high level of uncertainty.

a. Identification of environmental sensitive areas should be supported on a BSR regional level and in the coordinated implementation strategy of Water Framework Directive, Marine Strategy Directive and Common Agricultural Policy. This involves release and harmonization of appropriate data of sufficient scale and quality on the BSR regional level which could be encouraged by additional demands and improvements in the common monitoring frameworks for rural development expenditure.

b. Given the present uncertainty in determining loads and impacts the guiding principle should be to emphasize the diversity of actions and the diversity of agricultural farms in the landscape.

9. Agricultural advisory services will have a very important role in providing advice to farmers. The role of advisory services will expand as both society and the farmers increase their need for professional assistance in developing a higher level of knowledge-based agriculture.

 Regular, qualified agri-environment advisory service should be made available free of charge to all farms and all established individual cooperative agreements (CA) in high risk areas. This should be incorporated in RDPs.

10. Currently the provision of ecosystem services in agriculture relies heavily on the willingness and ability of individual farmers to arrange financing and to bear the financial risk connected to land use changes and agri- technological investments. This is, in part, due to restrictions on the simultaneous application of different CAP instruments.

 Regulatory frameworks should be opened up to promote combinations of different funding sources for advancing environmental public goods through agri-environment investments where there are clearly indicated social values. In addition, a separate fund within EAFRD should be established for supporting agri-environment investments through cooperative agreements outside the CAP.