High Nature Value Farmland – regional examples
The importance for nature of European low-intensity farming
Our “HNV Showcase” focuses on the nature conservation importance of Europe’s low intensity farmland. Much of EFNCP work endeavours to highlight the importance of farming systems and to influence policy and policy developments that affect livestock farming.
But in the depths of policy debates it is easy to forget that the primary reason for trying to influence these policies is because of the overwhelming importance for nature of some areas of farmland. Unfortunately, often there is not the opportunity, time or space to describe the biology of such areas. This section aims to fill this gap.
We have chosen some regional examples of areas that individual members of the EFNCP network know well. The examples are not intended to be comprehensive or exhaustive but to give a feel for what the areas are like and to show why they are regarded as being of high nature value (“Information galleries”).
To put the biological stories into context each example includes some information about the farming systems and the physical and socio-economic context, sometimes as additional information in a “Fact & Figures” section. The level of detail of this varies between the examples.