Portugal: agri-environmental policy and the maintenance of biodiversity-rich extensive farming systems

The entry of Portugal into the European Economic Community in 1986 caused fundamental changes to Portuguese agriculture, in particular through the intensification of crops and rotations and the introduction of new cultures often less suited than traditional crops to Portugal&s;s environmental conditions. An interesting aspect of the Portuguese agri-environmental programme are the schemes related to the maintenance of traditional forest ecosystems on farms, which in most other European Union (EU) countries are part of Regulation 2080/92 rather than 2078. As in Spain and Greece, Portugal has been a relative latecomer with regard to implementing agri-environmental policy, and has lacked the experience with agri-environmental schemes that has given a vital head start to most of the northern EU Member States. The discussion has highlighted that in Portugal, as in other Mediterranean countries, the survival of biodiversity-rich wildlife habitats has relied on century-old extensive farming systems.