Brussels gives hedges the chop

Hedges are vital refuges for wildlife

By environment correspondent Alex Kirby

Conservation groups in the United Kingdom are up in arms about a ruling by the European Commission which they say will force them to cut back hedges, causing untold damage to wildlife.

The ruling, which is due to be applied from 15 May, has been introduced at the insistence of the European Court of Auditors.

Known as "the two-metre rule", it strictly enforces guidance issued by the European Commission in 1992.

Payments in jeopardy

It states that field boundaries, measured from the mid-point of a hedge or ditch to the edge of the growing crop, must be no more than two m wide.

If they are left wider than this, farmers will lose part of the subsidy they receive for growing arable crops. The payments are based on the size of the area being cultivated, and the ruling is intended to combat fraud.

The ruling is an anti-fraud measure

Estimates put the length of hedges on farmland in England and Wales alone at between 90,000 and 150,000 miles.

The hedges are crucially important as a haven for small mammals, birds, plants and insects like butterflies. They also often act as windbreaks, helping to slow soil erosion.

The new rule will also prompt farmers to plough up uncropped field margins, which with the hedges are an important wildlife resource, sheltering useful insects and acting as buffer strips round fields treated with chemicals.

Sixteen environmental and farming organisations, co-ordinated by Wildlife and Countryside Link (WCL), have written to the Agriculture Minister, Nick Brown, asking him to postpone a decision on implementing the ruling.

'Nonsense to penalise'

Rob Macklin is agricultural adviser for the National Trust, one of the organisations supporting the WCL letter.

He said: "Penalising farmers for retaining field boundaries over 2 m width just doesn't make sense."

"Such features should not only be permitted but actively encouraged within the arable subsidy system across the entire European Union."

All farmers are bound by the ruling

Alastair Rutherford, chairman of WCL's farming group, said: "This decision could lead to major environmental losses and be a huge setback to all of the advances that have been made over the last few years."

A spokeswoman for the agriculture ministry told BBC News Online: "Mr Brown has met the commissioner, Franz Fischler, and discussions have been going on for some time."

"The rules have in fact been the same throughout, since 1992. But now we are being asked to implement them strictly.

"Obviously no-one wants to see fraud. But neither do we want to see wildlife harmed in any way.

"We are hopeful that the discussions will end with us being able to use a degree of flexibility in applying the rules."