The importance of agriculture for the natural environment and for biodiversity is emphasised by the fact that nearly half the land surface in Belgium is farmed. Farming is an activity which goes beyond simple food production, affecting and using natural resources such as soil and water. Over the centuries, farming has contributed to the creation and maintenance of a large variety of agricultural landscapes (fields, pastures, quickset hedges, mixed woodland and pasture, etc.) which provide important semi-natural habitats for wildlife. Furthermore, the agricultural sector plays a multi-functional role as a food producer, biodiversity manager, motor for the economy in rural areas and guarantor of in situ conservation of local species, varieties and domestic animal breeds. However, in recent decades, intensification and specialisation of agriculture, and at the same time marginalisation of land, have resulted in significant biodiversity loss in and around farmland. Farmland bird populations in particular have shown a decline over last decades.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), together with broader developmental dynamics of the agricultural sector has only gradually taken on concerns regarding biodiversity loss. The CAP has its roots in 1950s Western Europe, whose societies had been damaged by years of war, and where agriculture had been crippled and food supplies could not be guaranteed. The emphasis of the early CAP was on encouraging better productivity in the food chain so that consumers had a stable supply of affordable food. The CAP offered subsidies and guaranteed prices to farmers, thus providing them with incentives to produce, and a viable income. Financial assistance was provided for the restructuring of farming, for example by aiding farm investment, aiming to ensure that farms increased in size and that farmers developed management and technology skills so that they were adapted to the economic and social climate of the day. Although successful in reaching its original objectives, this policy also lead to reducing high nature value farmlands, the removal of hedgerows and the draining of wetlands, and intensification exerted a variety of pressures on ecosystems (high fertilizer and chemicals inputs, drainage, increasing cutting frequencies, grazing pressures, early mowing, over sizing of agricultural parcels).

Since 1992, however, the CAP has been adapted to better integrate biodiversity needs. Increasing use of agri-environment measures, Good Farming Practice, organic farming and the support of Less Favoured Areas have favoured farmland biodiversity. The 2003 CAP reform promotes these and other pro-biodiversity measures. Measures under market and income policy, including mandatory cross-compliance, the single farm payment (decoupling) and modulation, should have provided indirect benefits to biodiversity. These measures have been implemented at EU level since 2005. The on-going reform of the CAP (2013) goes a step further in this direction by introducing a Greening Payment as an essential part of the direct payments to farmers.

Reducing pressure on biodiversity from agriculture is a big challenge for farmers in Belgium because our agriculture is one of the most intensive, specialised and productive in Europe. Furthermore, farmers are currently facing serious challenges with regard to the continuation of their profession. The number of farmers is decreasing every year. They leave the profession for various reasons, including competitive pressures from the market, compensation for the drop in prices by a rise in the cultivated area and risks posed by the move towards energetic crops. Between 2000 and 2010, 19,072 farms ceased their activities (30.8 per cent of Belgian farmers) with the total agricultural area decreasing only slightly (decrease of 2.6 per cent), so that the average area per farm is growing (FPS Economy - Directorate-general Statistics Belgium, agriculture census 2000 and 2010).