The economic pressures of suddenly having to compete in a huge
open market, coupled with the implementation of the EU’s common agricultural
policy (CAP) could drive Cypriot growers to intensify production, to the
detriment of farmland wildlife.
Agricultural intensification follows a well-documented
pattern: using more pesticides poisons wildlife and – as importantly – robs
it of insects and seeds to feed on; fields are made bigger to allow increased
mechanisation and edge habitat (hedges, trees, ditches) is lost along with
shelter, nesting and feeding sites for wildlife; monoculture replaces the
traditional patchwork of different crops; and abandonment of marginal land and
traditional pastoral practices allow scrub encroachment. The dramatic decline in
farmland bird populations across the EU over the past 20 to 30 years exemplifies
the biodiversity problems. BirdLife International reveals that out of 571
Important Bird Areas in the new EU 10 as well as in Bulgaria, Romania and
Turkey, 189 are affected by intensification and 157 by abandonment(1).
Intensification tends to pose the greater threat in the Mediterranean.
Avoiding intensive agriculture
The awkward question is how to make the agricultural
sectors of new EU Member States competitive while avoiding the
wildlife-unfriendly excesses of agricultural intensification. From Latvia in the
north to Malta in the south, the new Member States can boast of the sort of
wildlife-rich farmland Western Europe for the most part lost decades ago. This
wealth of biodiversity needs to be protected and actively maintained.
Avoiding agricultural intensification is also about keeping
farming healthy and viable. At stake are the long-term stability and
productivity of agricultural ecosystems. The evidence is that you need
biodiversity to maintain these. Also at stake is the ability to avoid
contamination of water and soil with persistent chemical pollutants and to halt
soil erosion.
Last summer’s ‘greening’ of the CAP has gone some way
towards reducing the intensification effect of extending the EU’s agricultural
policy to new Member States. De-coupling of direct subsidies from yield will
remove the incentive for Cypriot farmers to grow more at all costs and the
shifting of funds from subsidies to rural development holds the potential for
actively encouraging wildlife-friendly farming. But cross-compliance – the new
provision that links the receipt of subsidies to the maintenance of certain
farming practice standards, including environmental standards – does not come
into effect in new Member States till 2005 at the earliest.
Pesticide issues in Cyprus
Cypriot growers have a reputation for being free with
the use of pesticides. Available figures point to a five-fold increase in use
between 1977 and 1999 (from 3.2 to 15.2 kg/ha/year of active ingredient).
Periodic discoveries of pesticide residues in fresh produce make the headlines,
but the impact on wildlife and the environment in general is less well-known.
The island’s 20-odd remaining pairs of Griffon vultures are vulnerable to bait
doused with the carbamate methomyl left out by fox-hating shepherds, but this is
only the relatively obvious and direct impact of biocide abuse on wildlife.
Cyprus has an international responsibility to protect this critically endangered
species whose numbers world-wide are plummeting through habitat loss and illegal
poaching.
The hope has to be that joining the EU will lead not to
widespread agricultural intensification and the increased pesticide usage that
goes with this, but rather to stricter controls on pesticide usage and the
promotion of environmentally sound alternatives like organic farming.
1. Agriculture and the environment in the EU accession countries. Implications of applying the EU common agriculture policy, Environmental issue report No37, European Environment Agency, 2004.
Martin Hellicar, EU Accession Officer, BirdLife Cyprus PO Box 28076, Nicosia 2090, Email cos@cytanet.com.cy, http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/birdlifecyprus
[This article first appeared in Pesticides News No. 64, June 2004, page 9]