Farming for Nature and the law
Does Farming for Nature fit into the current rules? For agricultural nature management we now have the national agri-environment scheme Progamma Beheer of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Food Quality, which is part of the Land and Water Management budget, which is executed by the Provinces. There is a big difference between the starting point of Farming for Nature and that of the national AES. Farming for Nature is aiming for a good management of the conditions in which plants and animals can come into being. The Preservation Programme aims for developing precisely stated nature target types.
European rules
Regarding content, Farming for Nature fits well into the objectives of the European environmental and rural policies. After all, the agricultural production is decreasing through extensification, money is invested in nature and landscape, the environment improves and the measures are good for the social structure in rural areas. A big threshold still is the State aid procedure, which has the objective of preventing unfair competition between farmers because of financial support from governments.
Loss of income
The governmental rules state that support for farmers is only allowed if loss of income (‘income foregone') occurs due to the supply of public goods and services. This has to be explained well. After a long procedure, the European Commission decided in July 2006 that it does not have any objections against the system of allowances used with Farming for Nature. The approval was given for a pilot of five farms for five years. After this period, the payment level will be evaluated in order to establish if it is still in pace with the developments in the market. After that, more farmers may be able to start working according to the Farming for Nature concept.