Map 1 – State of play of HNV farming approach in the MS

High Nature Value (HNV) farmland areas and features have been widely recognised as a valuable asset of European agricultural landscapes, providing highly varied living conditions for a wide range of species and thereby contributing to biodiversity.

The concept of HNV farming refers to the causality between certain types of farming activity and corresponding environmental outcomes, including high levels of biodiversity and the presence of environmentally valuable habitats and species. HNV farming is therefore a key indicator for the impact assessment of policy interventions with respect to the preservation and enhancement of biodiversity, habitats and ecosystems dependent on agriculture and of traditional rural landscapes.

Some "natural values", related to high levels of biodiversity or the presence of certain species and habitats, depend on certain types of farming activity. The dominant feature of HNV farming is low-intensity management, with a significant presence of semi-natural vegetation, in particular extensive grassland. Diversity of land cover, including features such as ponds, hedges, and woodland, is also a characteristic.

Typical HNV farmland areas are extensively grazed uplands, alpine meadows and pasture, steppic areas in eastern and southern Europe, and dehesas and montados in Spain and Portugal. Certain more intensively farmed areas in lowland Western Europe can also host concentrations of species of particular conservation interest, such as migratory waterfowl.

A wide variety of approaches and combinations of methods are currently being used across the EU to assess the extent of HNV farming. Still, the assessment of its condition presents a considerable challenge.

Due to the variation in data availability across the Member States and regions of the EU and the range of physical situations (territory size, farm structure and systems, predominant land and habitat types), it is not appropriate to impose a common methodology for the assessment of HNV farming. Therefore, a unique precise definition embracing all types of HNV farming areas across Europe is not possible. Nor it is possible to derive an aggregate value for the EU-28 of the extent in ha of the HNV area.

Data on the percentage share of HNV farming in total UAA have been submitted by Member States to DG AGRI in the Rural Development Programmes (RDPs) 2014-2020. The RDPs do not include the methodologies used by MSs to define the values submitted. These data need a careful revision and check before they can be published.

In 2017 as survey on the methodological approach towards the HNV indicator was carried out. The working document 'HNV Farming indicator in RDPs 2014-2020: Overview from a Survey – Final version' summarises the approaches used by Member States.