Article
Agricultural Economics & Policy
Thilo W. Glebe
Summary: This article investigates the potential improvement in the performance of a sequential conservation auction by changing the duration of conservation contracts. The study shows that increasing the duration of conservation contracts can lead to higher optimal bids from risk-neutral bidders and increase the likelihood of land plots being included in conservation programs. However, the impact on budgetary cost effectiveness and economic efficiency of a sequential auction depends on the scale of variation for the cutoff bid.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS
(2022)
Article
Management
Bernardo F. Quiroga, Brent B. Moritz, V. Daniel R. Guide
Summary: This study examines the impact of using a clear scoring rule in government procurement auctions on buyers and sellers. The findings suggest that when the scoring rule is concealed, buyers experience poorer outcomes while sellers see an increase in profits.
JOURNAL OF OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Bartosz Bartkowski, Michael Beckmann, Marek Bednar, Sofia Biffi, Cristina Domingo-Marimon, Minucer Mesaros, Charlotte Schuessler, Borivoj Sarapatka, Sonja Tarcak, Tomas Vaclavik, Guy Ziv, Felix Wittstock
Summary: Agri-environmental schemes (AES) in Europe and elsewhere aim to reduce agriculture's negative impacts on the environment. Understanding farmers' decisions to adopt AES is crucial for designing effective schemes. However, current insights are mostly based on case studies or structured surveys that may have preconceived notions. There is a lack of studies that offer a broad perspective and take into account the cultural and institutional context of behavioral studies. Additionally, most studies focus on adoption decisions, neglecting implementation decisions and their ecological consequences.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Lydia Collas, Andrew Balmford
Summary: Action needs to be taken to address declines in biodiversity and climate change. European governments have primarily invested in agri-environment schemes (AES) which pay farmers to change their management practices for the benefit of the environment. This study compared the cost-effectiveness of AES with a land purchase strategy for nature conservation in the UK. The research found that AES were more cost-effective in the short term, but if budgets were increased significantly, land purchase would deliver greater biodiversity and climate mitigation benefits in the long term.
BIOLOGICAL CONSERVATION
(2023)
Article
Geography
Jack McCarthy, David Meredith, Christine Bonnin
Summary: This study explores the motivations of a small group of actors who applied to an Agri-Environmental Policy initiative in Ireland, showing how their motivations emerged based on specific relationships and future scenarios they envisioned. The capacity of actors to engage with possible futures heavily influences their ability to participate in collaborative approaches to Agri-Environmental Policy initiatives.
JOURNAL OF RURAL STUDIES
(2021)
Review
Biodiversity Conservation
John Rolfe, Steven Schilizzi, Md Sayed Iftekhar
Summary: Incentive payments to landholders have become popular for achieving conservation goals, with economists recommending competitive tenders over fixed rate payment schemes due to their efficiency benefits. However, low participation rates hinder the effectiveness of tenders, and potential mechanisms are needed to address this challenge.
CONSERVATION LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Olivier Aznar
Summary: This article re-examines the issue of environmental services from the perspective of agriculture policy and introduces a new typology. The application of this typology helps to better understand the definition and implementation of European agricultural environmental policies, and provides guidance for promoting environmental services, clarifying policy instrument choices, and adjusting policy evaluation.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & POLICY
(2023)
Article
Environmental Studies
Landon Yoder, Matthew Houser, Analena Bruce, Abigail Sullivan, James Farmer
Summary: Cover crops represent a potential win-win opportunity by helping farmers adapt to climate risks while reducing environmental impacts, but adoption rates are slow in the U.S. However, some counties in Indiana have high adoption rates, driven by farmers' sensitivity to climate risks, particularly flooding. Yet, despite the link between climate risks and cover crop adoption, challenges such as delayed planting and pest pressures hinder widespread adoption.
Article
Agricultural Economics & Policy
Steven Wallander, Laura A. Paul, Paul J. Ferraro, Kent D. Messer, Richard Iovanna
Summary: The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is one of the world's largest agricultural conservation programs, dedicating 22 million acres of vegetation for environmental conservation. By changing the information presentation and default options, the quality of conservation practices can be improved while reducing program costs.
Article
Environmental Studies
Anne Paulus, Nina Hagemann, Marieke C. Baaken, Stephanie Roilo, Viviana Alarcon-Segura, Anna F. Cord, Michael Beckmann
Summary: Agri-environmental schemes (AES) are important tools of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union, aiming to promote sustainable farming practices. This study combines biophysical maps with information on farm structure and landscape context to model the spatial distribution of AES adoption. The analysis reveals that AES tend to be implemented by larger farms specialized in permanent grassland cultivation and are typically located in protected areas with lower soil fertility. At the field level, AES are preferably allocated on fields close to water bodies and small woody features.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Virginia Namiotko, Aiste Galnaityte, Irena Krisciukaitiene, Tomas Balezentis
Summary: In recent years, humanity has been facing economic and environmental crises, with deteriorating agri-environmental situation being a crucial factor. The study evaluated the agri-environmental situation of selected EU countries and found Finland, Ireland, and Sweden to have the best situation, while the worst situation was in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany. Lithuania showed a decline, while Austria and Poland showed improvement. This research is important for the development of agri-environment and climate schemes for the EU Common Agricultural Policy post-2020.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH
(2022)
Review
Agriculture, Multidisciplinary
Noemi Elmiger, Robert Finger, Jaboury Ghazoul, Sergei Schaub
Summary: This study investigates the design and implementation of biodiversity indicators for result-based agri-environmental schemes. Most schemes currently use vascular plants as indicators, designed for large regions. Recent schemes tend to consider more biodiversity aspects and adapt to smaller scales. Policymakers need to consider their objectives, costs, and trade-offs when choosing indicators and schemes. New technologies can help improve the design and monitoring of biodiversity.
AGRICULTURAL SYSTEMS
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Andreas Roesch, Christian Flury, Thomas Nemecek, Stefan Mann, Christian Ritzel, Anina Gilgen
Summary: This paper presents a set of scientifically sound environmental indicators to describe the farm environmental impact and achieve Swiss agri-environmental policy goals. The indicator system covers key areas like greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity, and soil erosion. Three systems of varying complexity were developed and evaluated, highlighting advantages and disadvantages. Successful implementation requires broad acceptance, support, good communication, simple data acquisition, and transparency.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2023)
Article
Environmental Studies
Reinhard Uehleke, Martin Petrick, Silke Huettel
Summary: This study proposes a method mix for evaluating the effectiveness of agri-environmental schemes and tests it on the European Union's AES. The results show that AES can moderately decrease plant protection expenditures and moderately increase grassland shares. This method mix ensures an efficient use of information and improves the reliability of the evaluation.
Article
Agricultural Economics & Policy
Jesus Barreiro-Hurle, Francois J. Dessart, Jens Rommel, Mikolaj Czajkowski, Maria Espinosa-Goded, Macario Rodriguez-Entrena, Fabian Thomas, Katarzyna Zagorska
Summary: Agri-environmental policies usually involve mandatory requirements and compensated voluntary measures. The challenge of the future EU Common Agricultural Policy is to find the right balance between these interventions. An experiment with farmers in three EU Member States showed that increasing mandatory contributions to the environment and decreasing unconditional income support both reduced voluntary contributions, but the reduction was higher with increased mandatory contributions. However, a substantial increase in mandatory contributions resulted in higher total contributions.
