The FUW has welcomed a U-turn by the Welsh Assembly Government which will allow farmers' entitlements to be re-calculated where they are affected by reductions in common land forage areas.
The decision comes following extensive lobbying by the FUW over a prolonged period.
In the January edition of the WAG publication Gwlad, farmers were informed that they could face a reduction in the notional area they were allocated on commons due to re-mapping, and were told that they may require additional land to activate all their entitlements. The article also advised farmers to consider selling surplus entitlements.
FUW Common Land Committee Chairman, Lorraine Howells, said: "The FUW had written to WAG many times over the past six years warning that re-mapping without re-calculating entitlements would represent a serious departure from the historic single payment system adopted in Wales, and was likely to have severe consequences for large numbers of Welsh farmers."
"We were therefore appalled by the contents of the Gwlad article and immediately stepped up our lobbying, warning that the FUW would support legal action against such a policy."
Under the Welsh Single Payment Scheme, farmers with common land were granted entitlements based upon the forage areas of their common land areas in the years 2000-2002 - areas which were dictated to them by the authorities.
"Commoners had no control over these allocations during 2000-2002, so to suddenly reduce allocations, and thereby incomes, due to re-mapping would have been totally unjust," said Miss Howells.
"There was also a risk that commoners would have been informed of these changes at a time when it would have been too late to take action to minimise losses.
"This is therefore an important and welcome move by the Welsh Government.
"However, commoners should be aware that the re-mapping process is likely to have an impact for commoners in the future, for example in terms of Tir Mynydd payments, and when flat rate payments are introduced under the Common Agricultural Policy," added Miss Howells.