Sweden
Sweden is a typical northern country, with farming existing in a predominantly wooded landscape; indeed farming traditionally made extensive use of the forest for livestock, while the best, cleared, land was used for arable – see Swedish HNV showcase.
Permanent Pastures and Meadows — adapting CAP instruments to take account of public goods (2011)
Although the use of the forest for grazing livestock and the gathering of winter keep has declined markedly in Sweden in the last 100 years, the remaining wood pastures and pastures with trees are very valuable, both culturally and in terms of biodiversity. EU rules which limit the ability of the Swedish farmer to claim support payments on these areas are of great concern.
A seminar on this and related issues was jointly organised by the Forum and the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) with funding from DG Environment and the SSNC. It took place in May 2011 in Brussels and aimed to address the following specific issues with a strong emphasis on finding effective solutions:
- CAP definition of “permanent pasture”
- CAP direct payments eligibility criteria
- Cross-compliance rules on decline of permanent pastures
- Cross-compliance rules on minimum maintenance
- Greening options for Pillar 1
Forum conference Uppsala (2007): Can the Market work for Nature?
Together with the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC) the Forum organised this large conference, attended by over 80 people from all over Europe. Different workshops covered topics such as
