PhD student Aki Kadulin from the SHOWCASE partner Estonian University of Life Sciences (EMU) participated in the Student Conference in Conservation Science (SCCS) in Balatonvilágos, Hungary on 10-14 September, 2024. Her poster presentation, titled “Socio-economic drivers for abandoning semi-natural grasslands in Europe”, focused on a study written by EMU, Agroscope, and Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. It examines the socio-economic drivers of grassland abandonment in Europe and evaluates the incentives and policies, including the EU's Common Agricultural Policy, which aims to combat the trend of decline of semi-natural grasslands. 

The study included interviews with 16 experts from seven European countries (Estonia, Sweden, Switzerland, Hungary, Italy, Spain, and Portugal). The results from the study show that while CAP financial incentives help, more region-specific policies are needed to prevent the abandonment of biodiversity-rich semi-natural grasslands, often located in Natura 2000 areas. Furthermore, competing land-use options and the public's preference for rewilding pose challenges and result-based payments offer flexibility but come with risks due to uncontrollable factors.

On another occasion on 9 October, Ms Kadulin had the opportunity to attend the 4th meeting of the Forum on Best Practices in the Agri-Food Supply Chain (EU CAP Network event) where she presented insights on semi-natural grasslands, marginal agricultural areas and policies. The event, which was attended by numerous participants representing various stakeholders, such as farmers, farm advisers, policymakers and researchers, aimed to help find out how to help farmers strengthen their position in the value chain. Challenges that farmers face in different EU countries, uniqueness of EU agriculture and CAP policies were also discussed.

Image: Participants during the EU CAP Network event on 9 October, Brussels Belgium.