Nature conservation and agriculture: two EU policy domains that finally meet?

Over time the EU has developed an ever-expanding body of agricultural and nature conservation policies. This chapter analyses to what extent these two policy fields complement or contradict each other. It analyses the level of the coherence between the policy fields by looking at the interdependent elements objectives, instruments and implementation. Results indicate that over time steps have been taken to improve the coherence between these policy fields. Particularly at the level of policy objectives the agricultural policy has increasingly committed to conserve biodiversity. At the same time nature conservation policy has acknowledged the important role of agriculture in maintaining biodiversity. However, at the level of instruments and implementation practices many inconsistencies remain.