The European Commission has indicated that whatever agri-environmental scheme takes over from the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) in 2028 should continue the results-based and co-operative elements of the current scheme.

The Commission’s agriculture and rural development wing has outlined the possibility to member states of creating an agri-environmental scheme for 2028-2034 that would offer farmers a “menu of practices” to choose from that would be accompanied by a “scoring system”.

The scoring of farms, as takes place in area-based ACRES actions, should be continued to “measure environmental outcomes”, while leaving “more leeway to farmers to decide how best to achieve the outcomes”, the Commission report states.

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It also calls for any new agri-environmental schemes to tailor measures for “environmental hotspots” with particular needs, with these hotspot areas to be determined within EU member states.

Collective action across farms, as is currently carried out in ACRES co-operation areas, should focus on biodiversity conservation, climate adaptation and water management measures, the Commission said.

It maintains that the trade-off that arises when designing measures between high-impact actions and those which prove popular among applicants is to be borne in mind when drawing up the scheme that is to take over from ACRES.

The Commission advised a “combination of actions with different levels of environmentally friendly practices are needed to reach a significant share of both farmer uptake and farmland coverage”.

The report acknowledges that although measures in agri-environmental schemes should be designed chiefly with aim of additionality – limiting agri-environmental funds just to farmers who agree to implement new or extra measures – it is also “very important to preserve any existing beneficial practices that prevent farmers from switching to more intensive methods”. It stated that paying farmers for keeping up practices like organic farming, low stocking densities, sustainable grazing or no-tillage systems should be considered, even if they are already carried out.

The Commission report referred to a trend of intensification in “high-intensity dairy regions” in western Europe as one of the regions that should see “sustainable grassland management and grazing systems” receiving support as a “high priority”.

The report also lays out a list of practices that contribute most to protection of existing carbon sinks, with continuation of organic farming, agroforestry, an increased covering of landscape features, preventing tillage on grasslands, reduced tillage on tillage lands and peatland restoration or rewetting cited.