Creating the right tools for a richer countryside

The UK’s four Link organisations (the Joint Links) have today published Crunch Time for CAP: Choosing the right tools for a richer countryside. The Joint Links have long campaigned for reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) to help deliver a thriving natural environment.

Our shared vision for the CAP to evolve into an integrated agricultural and environmental policy remains unchanged, not least because the UK continues to face environmental challenges including those driven by CAP incentives and emerging demands on land.

These challenges we face, are not insurmountable and many farmers have demonstrated that farming productively and profitably can go hand in hand with environmental protection and good animal welfare. However, the policy tools that encourage positive land and animal management remain limited under the current CAP. Despite several significant reforms in recent decades, the CAP still contains major contradictions in the way it addresses environmental challenges. In times of economic uncertainty prioritising the environment can be challenging, but the environment is not a luxury affordable only in times of plenty.

As we enter this current round of CAP reform, the tools to drive forward more sustainable, humane and wildlife-friendly farming must be developed. It must not be hijacked by those who wish to legitimise the status quo through greenwash. The CAP must play its role in meeting UK, EU and global objectives and commitments, to halt and reverse biodiversity declines by 2020 and meet ambitious climate change targets, but this requires genuine greening.

Read the Crunch Time for CAP report online here

Download the PDF report here

Download the PDF press release here

For further information please contact Kirsten Loveday

For press enquiries please contact Jack Neill-Hall / 020 7981 2019

Find more information on the Joint Links here

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