Regional differences in the impact of Common Agricultural Policy instruments on the protection of agricultural land biodiversity of the Wielkopolskie Voivodeship

Abstract

The measures taken by farmers regarding fulfilling cross-compliance rules as well as the implementation of some Rural Development Programme projects, such as the environmental management scheme in the years 2004–2013 and agri-environmental-climate and ecological schemes in the years 2014–2020, have contributed to an improvement in the protection of biodiversity in rural areas. The article aims to present the spatial changes in the protection of agricultural land biodiversity following subsidies for the development of ecological and sustainable production in the Wielkopolskie Voivodeship. The spatial analysis rests on four indicators showing the number of applications granted as part of the packages of sustainable and ecological farming in relation to the total number of farms expressed in a percentage, the amount of money received for this purpose by ha of agricultural land, the share of farms receiving incentives by the total number of farms, and the share of agricultural land covered by incentives by the total area of farmland. The spatial scope of the analysis embraces the Wielkopolskie Voivodeship with poviats (counties) as basic units (by 31 poviat offices of the Agency for Restructuring and Modernisation of Agriculture). The research shows that the subsidies have positively affected the concentration of the agricultural land covered by environmental management incentives, as has been observed in the north-western part of the Wielkopolskie Voivodeship, where the greater use of economic instruments by farmers has resulted in the continuation of saving agricultural land by extensive farming, and thus the preservation and expansion of biodiversity.