Background
History
Defra and key stakeholders recognised that the 2003 CAP reform measures could have radical environmental consequences, positive and negative.
A commitment was made to set up a programme of work to provide early and enhanced monitoring of how CAP reform is feeding through to changes at the farm level and environmental impacts.
The formation and development of the Programme has drawn on the scoping report published October 2004 by Gloucester University:
A wide range of stakeholders were engaged on the back of this report and there was general agreement that this function was required.
The Agricultural Change and Environment Observatory Programme was formally launched on 4 July 2005 at the Royal Agricultural Show by Rt. Hon. Margaret Beckett, MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Programme aim
The aim of the Programme is to monitor, and where possible anticipate changes in agriculture and at a farm level arising from CAP reform and other key drivers, and to assess the consequent implications for the environment.
The Observatory will take account of the full range of existing information and analysis to provide an integrated and up to date assessment of the impacts of CAP reform on farm level behaviour and the associated impacts on the environment.
The aims of the Programme will be achieved through monitoring and analysis of:
- Current and future farm level changes in patterns and practices
- Baseline assessment of environmental impacts of agriculture
- Links between the changes observed in farming patterns and practices and observed environmental changes, both beneficial and detrimental
- Future environmental changes on the basis of observed or intended behavioural changes by farmers or other land managers and the causal links to environmental impacts.
Programme scope
The Observatory will sit alongside Defra’s current and planned programmes for monitoring key environmental, social and economic changes.
Key principles for the scope of the Observatory are as follows:
- The primary focus will be on implications for the environment
- CAP reform is main rationale for the Observatory Programme but broader market and policy drivers will need to be taken into account
- It will focus at England level
- It will provide evidence for monitoring but not policy advice.
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