García-de-la-Fuente, LauraOtano, David GuzmánCabello de Alba, Amparo MoraNobre, SílviaBrau-Nogué, Catherine2019-03-142019-03-142018García-de-la-Fuente, Laura; Guzmán Otano, David; Mora Cabello de Alba, Amparo; Nobre, Sílvia; Brau-Nogué, Catherine (2018). Designing economic instruments to maintain and enhance hay meadows biodiversity in South-West Europe. In Proceedings of the 27th General Meeting of the European Grassland Federation. Cork. p. 721-723. ISBN 978-1-84170-643-6978-1-84170-643-6http://hdl.handle.net/10198/19135Hay meadows, agri-ecosystems maintained by the secular actions of man, are disappearing all over Europe, and with them, large areas with high biodiversity. In recent years, this process has also affected significant surfaces of mesophile hay meadows located in South-West European (SW EU) mountain areas due to changes in land management and socio- demographic decline. Specific agri-environmental subsidies are one of the potential instruments to favour their conservation, but most of SW EU mountain areas lack them. This study aims to analyse how current agricultural payment schemes from CAP and Rural Development Programmes (RDP) can be used to enhance biodiversity conservation by promoting the maintenance/recovery of the traditional extensive management of mesophile hay meadows in Natura 2000 areas within SW EU territory. To reach this goal, an extensive review and characterisation of economic instruments and sectoral experiences applied to the conservation of these meadows in Europe has been carried out. In addition, a clustering and comparative analysis of their main features, transfer possibilities and implementation results have been addressed. As a result, this study proposes strategic guidelines to design and put into practice future economic measures to conserve mesophile hay meadows in different SW EU mountain protected areas.engMesophile hay meadowsMountains,SubsidiesConservationSouth-west Europeconference object