Biodiversity of European agricultural landscapes : enhancing a high nature value farmland indicator

specific species, the biodiversity values of agricultural land can differ substantially across Europe. From the policy perspective, high nature value agricultural landscapes are of large interest in the framework of agri-environmental measures and rural development objectives. This project aims at developing a new indicator for high nature value farming, in other words indicating areas where European agricultural landscapes have a high biodiversity value, integrating state-of-the-art European data sets. European data sets that have been analysed are e.g. CORINE Land Cover, LUCAS Landscape Elements, UTM Farmland Bird statistics, and FADN land use statistics (e.g. intensity expressed in kg N/ha). The developed methodology aimed to identify different levels of biodiversity values for all agricultural landscapes. The European Landscape Classification LANMAP, provided the landscape units at which the different data sources were integrated and analysed. Identification of the extent as well as the quality of high nature value farming areas is of equal importance. The intention is to contribute to the further development of European assessments and monitoring programmes currently ongoing at the EC and EEA.