On February 9 2023, Dutch academic partners of the three sister projects CONSOLE, Contracts2.0 and EFFECT organised a workshop on the topic of agri-environmental schemes. The workshop was an opportunity to exchange the outcomes of the three projects and future research perspectives with a small group of stakeholders. The stakeholders had backgrounds in applied science, policy, and practice.
The workshop was organised as a mix of presentations that showed results and reflections from each of the three research projects and rich discussions, based on the presentations and the expertise, interests and background of all participants. Discussions covered several themes, such as the types and the effectiveness of existing agri-environmental contracts, and ways to adjust the contracts to future challenges.
In the panel discussion led by Lenny van Bussel (PBL), Alex Datema (Boerennatuur) and Raymond Schrijver (WEnR), particular attention was given to lessons from good management of the commons, the importance of integrated and long(er)-term measures, and the lack of knowledge on the actual effectiveness of the existing contract terms (i.e. management prescriptions).
We look back on a very inspiring workshop that revealed years of collaborative work within the projects, the complementarity of the three sister projects and gave insights on future questions that need to be addressed.
Cover photo by Gustavo Fring
