Monitoring framework for assessing changes of the Estonian rural landscape in adopting European agricultural policies

The article describes the methodology of landscape and biodiversity monitoring in Estonia since 2004 for complying with European Union agricultural and environmental policies. The paper includes an overview of the introduction of the agri-environment programme; specifies how landscape features in agricultural and semi-natural areas are monitored, and to which extent agricultural impacts on environment are buffered by support measures. Designing monitoring networks to be spatially more efficient regarding changes in rural landscapes and assessing agricultural impacts is one of the keys to upgrading monitoring methods and decision-support systems.