Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs) are particular parts of the countryside where the landscape, wildlife and historic interest are of national importance.
Many features of the countryside – hedges, walls, ditches, field barns, hay meadows, heather moorland and river valley grasslands – have been created by traditional farming methods over hundreds of years. These features are highly valued, both for their scenic beauty and for the habitats they provide for plants and wildlife.
Incentives to increase food production in the past have led to changes in farming practices. There has been a shift from mixed farming and traditional stock-farming to more intensive methods of livestock production and crop farming. This has resulted in a loss of wildlife habitats and landscape features.
European agricultural policymakers now want to help farmers to conserve the best landscape, wildlife and historic features of the countryside