High Nature Value (HNV) farming is a relatively new concept that has been developed since the early 1990s as a policy tool to describe those farming systems in Europe which are of greatest biodiversity value. Instead of focusing only upon the maintenance of rare or endangered species and habitats on protected sites, the HNV concept recognises that the conservation of biodiversity in the EU also depends to a great extent upon the continuation of specific farming systems and practices across much wider areas of the countryside.