Ian Hodge

Biodiversity Conservation: Challenges Beyond 2010

Biodiversity Convention In October 2010, the Convention on Biological Diversity will meet to assess the current condition of global biodiversity and to propose and agree on priorities for its future conservation. In this context, Rands et al. (p. 1298; see the News Focus section; see the cover) review recent patterns of biodiversity conservation, highlighting successes, as well as current and future threats. They argue that biodiversity should be treated as a public good, with responsibility for its conservation integrated across sectors of society and government, rather than be confined to the business of environmental agencies, and review the conditions under which this goal might be achieved. The continued growth of human populations and of per capita consumption have resulted in unsustainable exploitation of Earth’s biological diversity, exacerbated by climate change, ocean acidification, and other anthropogenic environmental impacts. We argue that effective conservation of biodiversity is essential for human survival and the maintenance of ecosystem processes. Despite some conservation successes (especially at local scales) and increasing public and government interest in living sustainably, biodiversity continues to decline. Moving beyond 2010, successful conservation approaches need to be reinforced and adequately financed. In addition, however, more radical changes are required that recognize biodiversity as a global public good, that integrate biodiversity conservation into policies and decision frameworks for resource production and consumption, and that focus on wider institutional and societal changes to enable more effective implementation of policy.

Does organic farming reduce environmental impacts? – A meta-analysis of European research

Organic farming practices have been promoted as, inter alia, reducing the environmental impacts of agriculture. This meta-analysis systematically analyses published studies that compare environmental impacts of organic and conventional farming in Europe. The results show that organic farming practices generally have positive impacts on the environment per unit of area, but not necessarily per product unit. Organic farms tend to have higher soil organic matter content and lower nutrient losses (nitrogen leaching, nitrous oxide emissions and ammonia emissions) per unit of field area. However, ammonia emissions, nitrogen leaching and nitrous oxide emissions per product unit were higher from organic systems. Organic systems had lower energy requirements, but higher land use, eutrophication potential and acidification potential per product unit. The variation within the results across different studies was wide due to differences in the systems compared and research methods used. The only impacts that were found to differ significantly between the systems were soil organic matter content, nitrogen leaching, nitrous oxide emissions per unit of field area, energy use and land use. Most of the studies that compared biodiversity in organic and conventional farming demonstrated lower environmental impacts from organic farming. The key challenges in conventional farming are to improve soil quality (by versatile crop rotations and additions of organic material), recycle nutrients and enhance and protect biodiversity. In organic farming, the main challenges are to improve the nutrient management and increase yields. In order to reduce the environmental impacts of farming in Europe, research efforts and policies should be targeted to developing farming systems that produce high yields with low negative environmental impacts drawing on techniques from both organic and conventional systems.

Agri‐environmental Pelationships and the Choice of Policy Mechanism

T HE main goal of international trade liberalisation is to establish a trading environment in which all firms compete on an equal footing. This includes a concern that all firms should pay the full costs of the inputs that are used in the production process. Where the production generates external costs, the Polluter Pays Principle has been widely accepted as indicating that the firm should bear the costs of environmental regulation (OECD, 1972). While for many years agriculture stood outside of most negotiations on international trade, it has taken a key role since the inception of the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations (Ingersent et al., 1995). In this context, agricultural policy has come under scrutiny to examine whether it is in conflict with trade liberalisation. Following the conclusion of the Uruguay Round trade negotiations, policies are exempt from commitments to reduce aggregate measures of support (AMS) if they fall into the ‘green box’ by meeting a number of criteria specified in Annex 2 of the Agreement on Agriculture. Policies have both to meet policy-specific criteria and to meet more general criteria that ‘they should have no, or at most minimal, trade distortion effect or effects on production’, that they must be financed by government (rather than involving transfers from consumers), and that they shall not provide price support to producers. Tangermann (1996, pp. 332–3) comments that these general criteria may prove to be more binding than the policy-specific ones. It is sometimes argued that agriculture in some places is different; that agriculture receives support in respect of the contribution that agricultural land management makes in protecting the quality of the rural environment and in supporting rural communities in other ways. While these policies, by their very nature, do affect the level of production, it is argued that they should not be regarded as trade-distorting subsidies and should be permitted within the rules

European agri-environmental policy for the 21st century

The present paper reviews the development of agri-environmental policy in Europe and assesses its prospects. While it does so from a predominantly UK perspective, there are many common features of the experience and policy choices across the majority of Member States. The first generation of agri-environmental measures applied command-and-control regulation for the prevention of pollution. Second-generation measures pay farmers for providing environmental public goods. The emphasis on ‘amenity’ derived from the maintenance of agricultural production systems contrasts with policy approaches in Australia and the USA. Well-designed incentive schemes constitute ‘quasi-markets’ for public goods, correcting for a pre-existing market failure. Problems in the delivery of policy include poor spatial targeting and a lack of clarity between environmental and income support objectives. Various changes will be required in order to increase the environmental effectiveness and efficiency of agri-environmental mechanisms.

Pesticide taxation and multi-objective policy-making: farm modelling to evaluate profit/environment trade-offs

Abstract Many countries in Western Europe have introduced voluntary programmes to encourage farmers to adopt environmentally more benign practices such as integrated pest management, but more policy action appears to be needed to meet the environmental quality levels now demanded. Input taxes could assist in meeting policy objectives. The issue considered here is the identification of the most appropriate specification of a tax instrument to reduce the environmental problems of agricultural pesticide usage. This paper takes a farm systems approach to evaluation. A case-study illustration is given for a specialist arable farm in the UK, combining an economic model of land use and production with a set of environmental indicators for pesticides. Linking these two components allows the identification of the potential trade-offs between achieving reductions in the environmental burden to a number of ecological dimensions and farm income. Different pesticide tax specifications vary in both the magnitude and the direction of their impacts. The results of the model indicate that either compromises will have to be made in environmental policy, or additional instruments will be required to counter-act the negative side-effects of some instruments.

Wetland restoration, collective action and the role of water management institutions

Over the past 50 years, large areas of agricultural land have been drained and put into intensive agricultural production. Increasing attention is now being paid to the issue of restoring wetland areas and promoting environmental benefits. Collective action is important for wetland restoration, both because of the physical interactions among landholders and because of the cost saving and enhanced environmental benefit that can be achieved at a larger scale. Policy needs to be geared towards facilitating co-operation among farmers if environmental schemes are to be effective in enabling wetland restoration. Internal Drainage Boards have been primarily involved with securing of land drainage for local landholders. They now have a formal responsibility to further nature conservation but could take a more proactive role in promoting wetland restoration. They have good information on local water management options and are well placed to co-ordinate actions for restoration. Agri-environment policy could be redirected in order to promote collective action for wetland restoration.

The alignment of agricultural and nature conservation policies in the European Union

Europe is a region of relatively high population density and productive agriculture subject to substantial government intervention under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). Many habitats and species of high conservation interest have been created by the maintenance of agricultural practices over long periods. These practices are often no longer profitable, and nature conservation initiatives require government support to cover the cost for them to be continued. The CAP has been reformed both to reduce production of agricultural commodities at costs in excess of world prices and to establish incentives for landholders to adopt voluntary conservation measures. A separate nature conservation policy has established an extensive series of protected sites (Natura 2000) that has, as yet, failed to halt the loss of biodiversity. Additional broader scale approaches have been advocated for conservation in the wider landscape matrix, including the alignment of agricultural and nature conservation policies, which remains a challenge. Possibilities for alignment include further shifting of funds from general support for farmers toward targeted payments for biodiversity goals at larger scales and adoption of an ecosystem approach. The European response to the competing demands for land resources may offer lessons globally as demands on rural land increase.

Participatory Environmental Education and Willingness to Pay for River Basin Management: Empirical Evidence from Nigeria

This paper examines the role of participation as a tool for improving individuals’ perceptions and environmental values using a test-retest experiment conducted in south-eastern Nigeria. Two identical contingent valuation experiments were interspersed by participatory workshops designed to involve respondents in framing and forming the valuation scenario. Econometric analyses found that participatory education significantly developed individuals’ perceptions of pollution problems and increased the magnitude and precision of their WTP for a river basin management scheme. The extent of changes in perceptions declined with increasing levels of formal education, suggesting that less educated respondents are more likely to hold weakly formed preferences. (JEL Q51, Q25)

Evaluating the environmentally sensitive areas: the value of rural environments and policy relevance

Abstract Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESAs) have come to take a central place in agri-environmental policy. An important evaluation of the scheme has sought to estimate the value of two ESAs using the contingent valuation method. This paper assesses this evaluation and argues that in practice the method failed to establish a clear and realistic description of the likely outcome of the policy. In a number of respects, the evaluation assumes that the policy will be successful prior to the analysis. These concerns are supported by the evidence available from monitoring studies. In consequence the evaluation is of limited use for the purposes of policy decision-making. There is a need to define the likely outcomes of policy more realistically, recognising the inevitable uncertainty, and to investigate the values of conservation at the margin in order to make such evaluations more relevant to policy development.

Barriers to Participation in Residual Rural Labour Markets

Structural change in rural areas has led to a differentiation in the ranges of experience of rural life. Within generally prosperous localities, some individuals may be unable to achieve what is widely accepted as an adequate standard of living. This article focuses on the barriers that individuals face with respect to participation in residual local labour markets in rural areas. A variety of factors influence capacity to participate. Empirical evidence is provided from a study that used in-depth interviews in two rural case study areas. The article assesses the barriers influencing labour market participation identified in the interviews, including the mismatch between skills and opportunities, recruitment practices, accessibility, the costs of labour market participation and housing. All may be influenced by the rural nature of the locations. The approach offers a framework for a qualitative analysis of labour markets from an individual perspective, avoiding the presumption of a common experience of a labour market determined by the general characteristics of labour market conditions.