In our new paper, published in AEE, we found that areas with high EU's #CAP direct payment support are negatively associated with farmland bird diversity in Slovenia, while AES and the “Greening” measures have had a weak relative effect. @AgriPlantSoil https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167880920303868

The intensification of production, particularly in the beef and dairy sectors, which has been supported by the #CAP direct payments, and forest succession in marginal areas were identified as the potential key drivers of the recent farmland biodiversity loss in Slovenia.

We recommend, that #FutureofCAP income support schemes should be redesigned to ensure at least neutral if not positive overall effects on farmland biodiversity by gradual phasing-out of references to (historic) production levels, increased conditionality and more effective AES.

In the additional spatial analysis, we show that the distribution of both the #CAP payments, include those for AES and organic farming is heavily skewed towards certain areas and agricultural sectors with more intensive agriculture...