IEEP newsletter - spring 2010

The impacts of land use change on key ecosystem services

There is increasing awareness of the important benefits that ecosystems provide and growing concern that these ecosystem services are being degraded as a result of human activities. This was the subject of a recent study by IEEP, in collaboration with Alterra, for DG Environment. The study examined the potential impacts of land use change to 2030 on four land services, namely food production, water (retention and quality), soil carbon and biodiversity. In particular, it focussed on the impacts of four pressures: soil sealing, habitat fragmentation, agricultural intensification/marginalisation and the loss of permanent grassland.

Although there is considerable uncertainty over future trends in land use in the EU, the study’s results indicate urban growth will continue and further agricultural intensification will probably occur, primarily in the EU-12 Member States. There is also likely to be ongoing abandonment of extensive and small-scale farming systems, especially in High Nature Value (HNV) farming systems in southern and eastern Europe, although the overall extent of abandonment is uncertain. Such land use changes are likely to lead to further habitat fragmentation and biodiversity losses, particularly in the EU-12. Impacts on soil carbon and water will vary; urbanisation and intensification will have detrimental impacts, but beneficial changes may occur from agricultural abandonment.

The study concluded that the existing EU environmental policy framework has the potential to maintain and restore the four land services (in particular biodiversity), and that few new instruments are required, other than a strong and effective Soil Framework Directive. But actions are required to re-orientate some existing measures (in particular the CAP), to increasingly support the provision of land services (this was also a finding of IEEP’s recent Public Goods study), to increase funding from the EU budget and to implement existing instruments more rapidly, effectively and comprehensively. There is also a clear need to consider and plan land use more holistically and strategically, so that existing instruments (e.g. incentives and regulations) can be better integrated and targeted to help optimise the provision of land services.

The full report can be downloaded from the IEEP website.