Claudia Sattler

Determination of trade-off-functions to analyse the provision of agricultural non-commodities

Multi-functionality of agriculture has become a crucial issue in WTO negotiations on agriculture trade. The theoretical classification of agricultural products into Commodity (CO) and Non-Commodity Outputs (NCO) by the OECD provided a framework for further analysis. The operationalisation of the concept of multi-functionality of agriculture requires detailed analyses of the nature of jointness between NCO and CO production, the level of NCO related to different types of production technology and the related production costs. Using the bio-economic modelling system MODAM, both an economic and ecological assessment of CO and NCO production can be performed. A fuzzy-logic tool processing expert knowledge assesses the environmental effects of agricultural production activities, while an economic evaluation provides information on their profitability. A farm level optimisation module allows for simulation of the production activities both at field, farm and regional level. Trade-off functions demonstrate the interdependencies of the analysed outputs.

Agricultural management issues of implementing multifunctionality: commodity and non-commodity production in the approach of the MEA-Scope project

Management practises are actually designed CO-oriented. Following the societal demand for implementing multifunctional agriculture it is necessary to examine in how far the existing management practices are as well feasible to produce NCOs or in how far they are multifunctionally sound (jointly CO/NCO oriented). Multifunctional joint production has to be aware production, considering the specific “yield potentials” of COs and NCOs at a specific natural site. From the farm management perspective, we assume both, CO and NCO as markets existing.

The MEA-Scope Modelling Approach

The MEA-Scope project developed, and applied a modelling approach that allows for the ex ante assessment of sustainability impacts of new policies, technologies and market changes. Thereby, the agricultural production at farm level and its effect on social, economic and environmental assets under changing circumstances is examined. The MEA-Scope modelling approach simulates the development of regional agricultural production structures over time. Within the same analysis, the approach considers details of individual farms and soils. During the project duration, three pre-existing models were further completed and interlinked with each other. The modelling approach was applied at two different levels of detail in seven different European regions to examine the effects of five agricultural policy scenarios. The core models involved were AgriPoliS, MODAM and FASSET/Farm-N. In this chapter, the modelling approach, characteristics of the models involved and the policy scenarios are introduced while results as well as details on the different modelling applications can be found in subsequent chapters of this book.

Analysing Exemplary Policy Issues Using the MEA-Scope Framework

This contribution links the activity of farming in rural areas in response to policy changes to the achievement of economic, social, and environmental policy objectives. The focus here is on a model-based evaluation of policy impacts on the supply of multifunctional activities using an indicator framework. We apply the MEA-Scope modelling approach.

Multilevel governance in community-based environmental management: a case study comparison from Latin America

We analyze four case studies from Latin America using the concept of multilevel governance to assess at what vertical and horizontal levels and in what roles various state, market, and civil society actors interact for successful community-based environmental management (CBEM). In particular, we address the problem of how a conflict over natural resources with high negative impacts on the livelihoods of the respective communities could be overcome by a governance change that resulted in a multilevel governance arrangement for CBEM. The analysis involves a mixed-methods approach that combines a variety of empirical methods in social research such as field visits, personal interviews, participant observations, and stakeholder workshops. To visualize results, we introduce two schemes to present the composition of the governance structures for cross-case comparison. The first scheme plots the different actors into an arrangement that shows their associations with different societal spheres and at which territorial scales they are primarily involved. The second scheme differentiates these actors based on their complementing governance roles. Active roles are attributed to actors who implement activities on the ground, whereas passive roles are assigned to actors who provide specific resources such as knowledge, funding, legislative framework, or others. All cases involved governance actors from more than one societal sphere who operate on at least three different territorial levels (local to international) and in distinct roles. Results show that multilevel governance can strengthen CBEM in different ways. First, the success of CBEM is an outcome of the sum of horizontal and vertical interactions of all involved actors, and there is no most appropriate single level of social organization at which a problem can best be addressed. Only the cooperation of actors from different societal spheres within and across levels ensures accessibility to needed resources and implementation on the ground. Second, civil society actors seem to be crucial actors because they often function as the initiators of governance change and as bridging actors who connect other actors across levels. Third, to enable cross-scale interaction for improved decision making, often new actors are formed whose roles are wilfully negotiated. Fourth, despite different interests of actors, all multilevel governance arrangements for CBEM were able to provide benefits to all actors. Finally, in all cases, procedures for conflict resolution among parties are in place to address problems and allow for polycentric mutual decision making. Nevertheless, in view of transferability of the analyzed multilevel governance arrangements for CBEM, it is important to acknowledge that the differentiation in the cooperation of actors characterizes complex solutions that work for a specific context and that cannot be transferred directly to another context.

The economic efficiency of conservation measures for amphibians in organic farming--results from bio-economic modelling.

This paper presents a whole farm bio-economic modelling approach for the assessment and optimisation of amphibian conservation conditions applied at the example of a large scale organic farm in North-Eastern Germany. The assessment focuses mainly on the habitat quality as affected by conservation measures such as through specific adapted crop production activities (CPA) and in-field buffer strips for the European tree frog (Hyla arborea), considering also interrelations with other amphibian species (i.e. common spadefoot toad (Pelobates fuscus), fire-bellied toad (Bombina bombina)). The aim of the approach is to understand, analyse and optimize the relationships between the ecological and economic performance of an organic farming system, based on the expectation that amphibians are differently impacted by different CPAs. The modelling system consists of a set of different sub-models that generate a farm model on the basis of environmentally evaluated CPAs. A crop-rotation sub-model provides a set of agronomically sustainable crop rotations that ensures overall sufficient nitrogen supply and controls weed, pest and disease infestations. An economic sub-model calculates the gross margins for each possible CPA including costs of inputs such as labour and machinery. The conservation effects of the CPAs are assessed with an ecological sub-model evaluates the potential negative or positive effect that each work step of a CPA has on amphibians. A mathematical programming sub-model calculates the optimal farm organization taking into account the limited factors of the farm (e.g. labour, land) as well as ecological improvements. In sequential model runs, the habitat quality is to be improved by the model, while the highest possible gross margin is still to be achieved. The results indicate that the model can be used to show the scope of action that a farmer has to improve habitat quality by reducing damage to amphibian population on its land during agricultural activities. Thereby, depending on the level of habitat quality that is aimed at, different measures may provide the most efficient solution. Lower levels of conservation can be achieved with low-cost adapted CPAs, such as an increased cutting height, reduced sowing density and grubbing instead of ploughing. Higher levels of conservation require e.g. grassland-like managed buffer strips around ponds in sensible areas, which incur much higher on-farm conservation costs.

Levantamento e avaliação dos casos de leishmaniose visceral (calazar) no Município de Formosa do Rio Preto, Bahia, Brasil

Levantamento e avaliacao dos casos de leishmaniose visceral (calazar) no Municipio de Formosa do Rio Preto, Bahia, Brasil

De espectadores impotentes a cogestores adaptativos: uma comunidade no Parque Estadual da Ilha do Cardoso (Cananeia, São Paulo, Brasil)

De espectadores impotentes a cogestores adaptativos: uma comunidade no Parque Estadual da Ilha do Cardoso (Cananeia, Sao Paulo, Brasil)

A Scenario-Wise Analysis of Economic and Environmental Impacts in the MEA-Scope Case Study Regions

This chapter summarises economic and environmental impacts of five CAP scenarios in seven European case study regions located in Germany, Denmark, Italy, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and France. The spatially explicit MEA-Scope modelling approach based on three farm-level models – AgriPoliS (agent-based), MODAM (bio-economic), FASSET (bio-physical) – is used to dynamically simulate the behaviour of single farms. At regional level, the change in a range of economic (i.a. number of farms, farm size, farm income) and environmental indicators (related to soil, water and habitat quality) is analysed to compare the scenarios.

Environmental Impacts of Pillar I and II with Specific Respect to Designated Areas – Results from the MEA-Scope Case Study in Germany

Impact assessment is a procedure that goes along with the preparation of policies and is a key instrument to support political decision-making. An environmental impact assessment (EIA) focuses on the likely environmental effects of a policy option. Of specific interest in this context are effects with respect to environmentally sensitive areas such as Natura 2000 areas. This chapter presents an indicator-based modelling approach for the assessment of environmental impacts of alternative policy scenarios with varying policy settings of pillar I and II of the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The application of the modelling approach is presented for a case study region in North Eastern Germany. Results show that decoupling of direct payments leads to a trend towards intensification on arable land, which is associated with negative impacts for most of the analysed environmental indicators. On the contrary, on grassland an extensification takes place, which is beneficial for most of the indicators and can be seen as an effect of cross compliance regulations in pillar II and reduced livestock numbers. In the analysed liberalisation scenarios an intensifycation on both land cover types, arable land and grassland, can be observed. A large extent of agricultural land is abandoned and land use of the land remaining in agricultural production is intensified. This effect gets even more pronounced if pillar II measures are ceased.