Åtgärder för biologisk mångfald i EU:s jordbruksstöd – lämpliga i tid och rum?

Sammanfattning: In this thesis the main instruments for sustaining biodiversity in the legal acts of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) are studied. The aim is to study how these instruments relate to the basic prerequisites that are needed to protect biodiversity in the arable landscape. The instruments are therefore evaluated based on principle seven of the so-called Malawi Principles. The Malawi Principles have been put forward to achieve a management of biodiversity in accordance with the Ecosystem Approach, that is a strategy for sustainable management of ecosystems. First, Malawi Principle number seven, on suitable temporal and spatial scales for the management of biodiversity, is concretized in accordance with specific objectives for the arable landscape. Suitable scales for such purposes are defined with guidance from ecology, agricultural and management research. Three spatial scales: farm level, landscape level and a more comprehensive level as well as two temporal scales: short term and long term are considered suitable for the management of biodiversity in the arable landscape. Subsequently, the contents of three instruments in CAP, cross-compliance, parts of the greening component and agri-environmental measures, are investigated with an EU legal dogmatic method. Thereafter, the content of each instrument is analyzed in relation to the five scales that have been deemed suitable. The analysis shows that, while differences between the instruments exist, management at suitable scales largely is theoretically possible through the wide discretion that has been left to the member states in their implementation of the instruments. However, the instruments have not been designed to diminish the high thresholds that exist for member states in order to implement them in a way that considers suitable scales. Therefore, the overall conclusion is that, on a principled level, there are substantial obstacles to achieve a management in suitable scales through the investigated instruments. Thus, it can be assumed that the instruments will have difficulties with contributing to good effects for the protection of biodiversity in the arable landscape.