This indicator presents the share of utilised agricultural areas in high nature value areas (HNVA).

Baldock (1993, 1995) analysed general characteristics of extensive agricultural systems and defined high nature value areas in terms of biodiversity and management methods as areas with low stocking density, low level of chemical input and low labour intensity. Based on these points, Andersen (2003) created a typology of high nature value areas that distinguishes:

• farmland with a high share of semi-natural vegetation,
• farmland with predominantly low-intensity agriculture or a mosaic of intensively cultivated land and land with semi-natural vegetation, and
• farmland with the production of rare plant and animal species.

The share of agricultural land in the above-mentioned types is determined by using various methodologies and data sources. The sources for the high nature value farmland areas from the first and the second indent are data on land use from the CORINE Land Cover database, combined with FADN farm accountancy data. Data for the high nature value farmland areas from the third and the fourth indent are taken from databases on the propagation of individual plant and animal species. The indicator is complemented with indicators KM08 (Consumption of fertilisers), KM09 (Consumption of pesticides), KM32 (the state of landscape), KM33 (Impact on habitats and biodiversity) and KM35 (Impact on landscape diversity).

The share of high nature value farmland areas in Slovenia is estimated on the basis of CORINE Land Cover data on land use from 2000. Since the secondary source data (FADN) is not yet available, we additionally used the estimate of the share of such areas based on the Agricultural Land Use Monitoring database established in Slovenia by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food. The calculation of the shares for both data sources is based on three scenarios (minimum, medium, maximum). The average or medium scenario was selected as the most probable and most realistic with regard to the inclusion of individual categories of land.

High nature value farmland areas hold important opportunities to achieve higher biodiversity and protection of endangered habitats in individual rural areas. In general, they can be denoted as characteristic areas of extensive agriculture with great diversity of biological species and habitats.

Due to its geographic position and diverse natural conditions, Slovenia ranks among the European countries with the highest degree of biodiversity. This also applies to agriculture, where natural conditions for the conservation of biological species and habitats are very favourable due to the prevailing use of grassland. The majority of high nature value farmland areas are located in western and southern Slovenia, particularly in the hilly and mountainous regions.

According to rough estimates based on the data on land use, between 60% and 80% of utilised agricultural areas are located in high nature value areas. The share of these areas is estimated on the basis of the CORINE Land Cover data on land use from 2000, and the Agricultural Land Use Monitoring database from 2008. The estimate is based on the average or medium scenarios, which include agricultural land with prevailing extensive land use as follows:
• land categories in the CORINE Land Cover data include pastures, complex cultivation patterns, land principally occupied by agriculture with significant areas of natural vegetation, natural meadows, bogs and heathland, transitional woodland shrub and continental bogs,
• land categories in the Agricultural Land use Monitoring include extensive orchards, intensive meadows, extensive meadows, land under afforestation, riparian growth, bogs, rushes and other marshy land.

Various types of grassland and related land forms represent the largest share of high nature value areas. In Slovenia, distinctly dispersed and diverse land has an important impact on the extent of high nature value farmland areas. According to the CORINE Land Cover methodology, this land represents more than 40% of all high nature value areas.