Green and Blue Infrastructure and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Reform

There is an increasing interest in the use of natural structures (generally referred to in policy as Green Infrastructure or Nature Based Solutions) to replace hard engineering forms of intervention in nature. A significant advantage of these types of natural solution, is that they can often deliver multiple benefits, for example a restored floodplain can slow water flow while reducing flooding, absorb carbon dioxide and benefit wildlife. While Green and Blue Infrastructures (GBI) as a concept is widely accepted, implementing it in practice is proving to be more difficult. In particular, linking GBI on a regional scale across agricultural landscapes, requires many individual farmers to coordinate their management.

This briefing describes what GBI is, its importance for reaching EU environmental policy goals. It gives a brief overview of the GBI features which exist in the agricultural landscape and of current knowledge on the impact of the CAP “greening” on GBI.