Denmark: implementation of new agri-environmental policy based on Regulation 2078

Regulation 2078 specifies the different options available to Member States concerning the specific content of individual schemes. The introduction of Regulation 2078 resulted in major changes to those pre-existing agri-environmental schemes offered to farmers under Regulation 797/85. The focus in Environmentally Sensitive Areas designation has been on soils of relatively poor agricultural value, organic and sandy soils, and on valuable and sensitive landscape types, marshland, river valleys and land reclaimed from the sea. Danish agri-environmental schemes should be seen in the context of a well-developed land use and nature conservation legislation that has ensured the conservation of many ecologically valuable landscape elements. Agri-environmental polices already existed in Denmark before they were formally incorporated into the European agenda. The national programme under Regulation 2078 in Denmark has been designed by the Ministry of Agriculture within a highly decentralised political and administrative system.