Internalisation & biodiversity: Is internalising agricultural production feasible and viability in relation to policy goals to protect biodiversity?

The EU has set ambitious goals to halt biodiversity loss and degradation of ecosystem services in the EU. Although some progress has been made, the 2015 mid-term review of the Biodiversity Strategy has shown that biodiversity loss and the degradation of ecosystem services have continued. Also at the global level, the EU wants to step up to reduce biodiversity loss and has committed to the Aichi Biodiversity Targets.

At the same time, the EU has ambitions in terms of food production and trade. In 2017, the EU’s agri-food trade reached a new record with a total trade value of 255 billion euro [2]. The EU is thereby globally the largest exporter and importer of agri-food products. The global trade in crop and livestock products, however, is shifting production and the associated environmental impacts to other regions. Given the problem of environmental burden shifting, should the EU continue to strive for increasing trade or should it consider to internalise the production of crops that are currently imported from elsewhere? What would be the impact of internalisation on other policy goals such as biodiversity?

In MAGIC, we explore options for internalisation of agricultural production and its impact on biodiversity. This policy brief gives an overview of the options and complexity related to internalisation at the EU level.