The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is the European Union's main instrument for agricultural planning, with a new reform approved for 2023-2027. The CAP intends to be aligned with the European Green Deal, a set of policy initiatives underpinning sustainable development and climate neutrality in the EU, but several flaws cast doubts about the compatibility of the objectives of these two policies. We reviewed recent literature on the potential of CAP environmental objectives for integration with the Green Deal: protection of biodiversity, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and sustainable management of natural resources. We found the CAP lacks appropriate planning measures, furthering instead the risk to biodiversity and ecosystem services driven by landscape and biotic homogenization. Funding allocation mechanisms are not tailored to mitigate agricultural emissions, decreasing the efficiency of climate mitigation actions. The legislation subsidises farms making extensive use of synthetic inputs without adequately supporting organic production, hindering the transition towards sustainable practices. We recommend proper control mechanisms to be introduced in CAP Strategic Plans from each Member State, to ensure the EU is set towards a sustainable production and consumption path. These include proportional assignment of funds to each CAP objective, quantitative targets to set goals and evidence-based interventions, and relevant indicators to facilitate effective monitoring of environmental performance. Additionally, both the CAP and the Green Deal should maintain ambitious environmental commitments in the face of crisis, to avoid further degradation of the natural resources on which our production systems stand.

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Species demanding specific habitat requirements suffer, particularly under environmental changes. The smallest owl of Africa, the Sokoke Scops Owl (Otus ireneae), occurs exclusively in East African coastal forests. To understand the movement behaviour and habitat demands of O. ireneae, we combined data from radio-tracking and remote sensing to calculate Species Distribution Models across the Arabuko Sokoke forest in southern Kenya. Based on these data, we estimated the local population size and projected the distribution of current suitable habitats. We found that the species occurs only in Cynometra woodland with large old trees and dense vegetation. Based on home range sizes and the distribution of suitable forest habitats, the local population size was estimated at < 400 pairs. Ongoing selective logging of hard-wood trees and the production of charcoal are reducing habitat quality of which will reduce the low numbers of O. ireneae, and of other specialist forest species, even further. Due to their close connection with intact Cynometra forest, O. ireneae is an excellent indicator of intact forest remnants. In addition, this species is a suitable flagship for the promotion and conservation of the last remaining coastal forests of East Africa.