| Case name - Water bodies as landscape features. Presented example uses pictures/orthoimages from a mix of several actual pastures to illustrate the issue. | |
| ISSUE - Water has been categorized with buildings, roads etc. in the guidance for area measurements and cannot be included in the eligible area. It should rather be considered a landscape feature that forms a natural and agriculture dependent part of e.g. wet meadow pastures. Grazing both in and in the close vicinity of the water bodies is crucial to keep them in a state suitable for birds (several listed in the Birds Directive) as well as amphibians (listed in the Habitats Directive). Shape and size varies both between seasons and between years due to weather fluctuations and intensity of grazing. | REPLY - It is acceptable to consider water bodies as scattered ineligible features under the pro rata for permanent grassland. Such ineligible features with a size above [100m²] which are inaccessible for grazing animals (i.e. there is no obvious access to animals) should be delineated in the LPIS reference layer, deducted from the MEA of the RP beforehand and they should be excluded, when applying the pro-rata system. Therefore they do not enter in the so-called "maximum 10% bonus" of the pro-rata system. For the remaining part of the RP the percentage of the scattered ineligible features and trees (in total) should be assessed and the category of the pro-rata system in which the RP falls registered in the LPIS reference layer. Each RP can only fall in one category of the pro-rata system. |
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