The link between context and scheme design in agri-environmental schemes: the successful case of the Netherlands

In response to the urgent matters related to intensive farming, a successful example of agri-environmental collective scheme in the Netherlands uses a mechanism-based approach to investigate the potential of eco-system services. Results show that success is strongly linked to social learning and trust-building mechanisms.

Intensification of farming in the Netherlands has caused increasing pressure on environmental quality. Horticulture and agriculture are now responsible for 13% of GHG emissions and the bird population has fallen by 70% in farmlands. The Dutch Rural Development Programme established a collective practice-based agri-environmental scheme that was applied in four pilot regions in order to reverse the decline in biodiversity in farming areas, introduce flexibility in conservation activities, and generally reduce bureaucracy.

This paper "Designing successful agri-environmental schemes: a mechanistic analysis of a collective scheme for eco-system services in the Netherlands" by G.Bazzan, J. Candel and C. Daujberg addresses the urgent and increasing issues of pollution, intensive farming and declining biodiversity in order to acknowledge the existing relationship with agri-environmental measures and the potential that they pose for climate mitigation. Agri-environmental pacts are contracts that provide financial compensation for engaging farmers in implementing measures of good farming practices.

The article aims to uncover the processes of actions and interactions within agri-environmental governance arrangements, by using as a focus a successful collective AES promoted in the Netherlands: the Noardlike Fryske Walden (NFW) agrarian collective in the northern province of Friesland.

The NFW example is considered successful because it achieved nature conservation, reduced nitrogen pollution and improved energy production. All this was possible thanks to committed farmer members who overcame the barriers to motivation, complexity and type of land. And they eventually created commitment among stakeholders, and set the basis for replicability.

Read the paper to find out more about the mechanistic approach that the authors used to analyse the impact and outcomes of agri-environmental governance arrangements.

Contacts:
Coordinator:
Prof. Mette Termansen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, mt@ifro.ku.dk
Communication Manager:
Mrs. Veronica Meneghello, ICONS, veronica.meneghello@icons.it

Project website: http://project-effect.eu/
LinkedIn: effectH2020
Twitter: @effect_2020

Provided by iCube Programme