Agri-environmental indicators

1. Agri-environmental indicators

2. Background • Cardiff European Council 1998: environmental dimension to be integrated in all Community policies • After two Commission Communications and the subsequent IRENA project, the Commission identified 28 agri-environmental indicators to be collected. • The European Council has accepted the indicator list, giving the overall coordination role to Eurostat for the Commission and to the CPSA in the Member States

3. Chosen Indicators • Operational indicators, which are well-defined and for which data are available at the appropriate territorial level • Indicators, which are well defined, but lack of regional data or have other weaknesses • Indicators that need substantial improvements in order to become fully operational

4. Operational indicators

5. Operational indicators

6. Well defined indicators

7. Well defined indicators (II)

8. Indicators that need substantial improvements

9. Tenderer Consortium • Alterra, Wageningen UR, The Netherlands • Department of Agro-ecology and Environment, University of Aarhus, Denmark • Institute for Land Reclamation and Grassland Farming, IMUZ, Falenty, Poland • Department of Sustainable Agricultural Systems, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Wien, Austria, • ADAS, Wolverhampton, United Kingdom

10. 9 Tasks described in ToR 1. Analyse AEI for data requirements, availability and gaps. 2. Analyse other reporting needs related to AEI. 3. Analyse methodologies for calculating greenhouse gas and ammonia emission and nutrient balances. • Summarise the data needs identified and determine the simplest common data collection approaches. • Analyse needs for and feasibility of data complementarity and combination for the calculation of the indicators (at parcel, farm, regional or national level).

11. 9 Tasks described in ToR • Characterise MS data collection and reporting systems and give best practise recommendations for a common data collection procedure. 7. Organise task force/ expert meetings • Submit a technical document summarising the results 9. To be presented and discussed at a workshop with the Member States and other potential stakeholders (DG EUROSTAT, DG AGRI, DG ENV, EEA, etc).

12. Guidingprinciples • Lego bloc principle, i.e., design the framework and its building blocs in a way that it provides flexibility. The building blocs should to be used many times for many different functions. The framework has to be robust (sustainable) and flexible at the same time, to be able to adjust to future changes. • Multiple solutions principle, i.e., there is not just one optimal solution for deriving the framework, but a range of possible solutions. Hence provide various proposals and indicate their pros and cons and ‘margins of flexibility’;

13. Guidingprinciples • Primary source principle, i.e., data collected directly at source, at the farm level, likely have a much larger accuracy than data derived from indirect sources; • Effectiveness and efficiency principles, i.e., collect the data once; use them many times; Transmit the data once; use them many times; cluster data where possible; • First things-first principle, i.e. the emphasis of the work has to be on the most important aspects. The priority activities have to be identified and these have to be carried out.

14. Guidingprinciples • Subsidiary principle, i.e., the idea that the central authority should have a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed effectively at a more immediate or local level.