Authors: Šumrada, Tanja; Erjavec, Emil;

In the EU, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is considered to be the critical public policy in terms of both impacts and funds dedicated to conservation. However, the goal of halting biodiversity loss in the EU remains elusive. By combining program theory and environmental policy integration frameworks, we assessed the current state of strategic planning and mainstreaming of biodiversity into the CAP in a selected EU Member State. The policy’s program logic model was found to be only loosely defined for most objectives. The key weaknesses were inadequate elaboration and quantification of needs and specific objectives, often unclear linkages to biodiversity policy legislation, and a lack of evaluations for particular measures. Furthermore, a significant gap was revealed between the relevance of measures, as declared in strategic documents, and their actual potential to achieve the stated objectives. Since decision-making is increasingly being devolved to the national level, the future CAP should thus include adequate safeguards and incentives to improve the quality of programming. In particular, the decision-makers should systematically close existing national data and knowledge gaps and strive to increase the capacity and motivation of national ministries to increase the CAP performance in the field of biodiversity conservation.