Across Europe, diverse ecosystems are being converted into farmland, hurting biodiversity and the climate. The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has been a key driver in this process but, with reform, it can become part of the solution.

Celia Nyssens and Simone Liliu dig into this land use dilemma in Lithuania.

Lithuania is a good window on to some of the implications of competing land-use interests and the inherent trade-offs making this such a complicated discussion. Since joining the EU, and with it the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), in 2004, the small Baltic country has massively expanded its arable land. Between 2005 and 2017, the farmed area increased by 44% on the back of the strong incentives provided by generous subsidies for arable farming. As a result, biodiversity-rich meadows were ploughed up and carbon-rich peatlands drained to plant crops.

These changes have involved serious environmental trade-offs: rapid deterioration of soils (causing considerable carbon emissions), increased nitrogen pollution in rivers and the Baltic Sea from the expanding use of fertilisers, as well as the loss of wildlife habitats and biodiversity. 

Read the full article here.