Academic paper

Degradation of groundwater quality and contamination of drinking resources is one of the most widespread and harmful impacts of over-fertilisation in agriculture. As part of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), agri- environment schemes (AES) have as main objective the protection and management of the farm environment, including groundwater quality. In this article a spatial econometric model is applied to evaluate the impact of AES on groundwater nitrate concentrations. Bavaria, a federal state of Germany, is used as a case study, due to the findings of high nitrate concentrations in the groundwater. A significantly negative effect is found between AES expenditures focusing on grassland management and nitrogen concentrations, while AES focusing on crop management, organic farming and preservation of cultural landscape did not show a significant effect. The assessment of other factors such as cereals and forage showed a statistically positive effect on nitrate concentrations. However, loam soil texture, rainfall, and residential area were found to negatively affect nitrate concentrations.

This paper employs the Institutional Analysis and Development framework across six ecosystem delivery measures in the European Union to develop a configurational explanation of (un)successful outcomes. By undertaking comparative institutional analysis, we systematically examine the effect of variation across rule types and generate insights on how different institutional configurations result in varying degrees of successful implementation of ecosystem delivery measures.

Eco-schemes are conceptually similar to the agri-environmental and climate schemes (AECS) of CAP Pillar 2 and participation is voluntary. A key difference is that farmers are legally entitled to eco-scheme payments, whereas a granting procedure is used to allocate AECS payments. Unlike the previous greening measures that were defined at EU level, Member States are free to choose eco-scheme measures as long as they respect the legal requirements in Article 31 of the Strategic Plan Regulation.

This study explores whether a ‘smart market’ cap-and-trade scheme between non-point sources can offer meaningful, robust and policy amenable, advantages over alternative approaches for nitrogen management in a realistic setting: 6504 individual farms in Limfjorden catchment, Denmark.

This article is a systematic review of 55 papers investigantig the performance Agro- Environmental Schemes (AES) and identifying the underlying factors affecting their performance. The theoretical and empirical evidence suggests that these incentives could potentially promote participation, spatial coordination, and environmental effectiveness. However, the results remain a subject of debate in experimental studies. Insights gained from the review provide important implications for the emerging field of conservation science and ongoing efforts to improve the design of AES for better landscape-scale management.

This article departs from the assumption that the chal-lenge of putting the Farm to Fork Strategy (F2F) intoaction stems from the broader challenge of attainingcross-sectoral policy integration. Policy integration hasbeen part of the EU's policy approach for a long timeand has predominantly been achieved in the form ofenvironmental policy integration (EPI). However, thescope of the F2F extends beyond EPI, as it includes theintegration of climate-related concerns into sectoralpolicies, for instance. Consequently, we contend thatattaining policy integration in the case of the F2F isparticularly challenging and calls for an innovativeapproach to policymaking

Romania has traditionally dealt with forest ecosystem services (FES) using a regulatory process of designing forest management plans (FMPs). We set an analytical framework to assess the integrated approach between FMPs, Natura 2000 biodiversity conservation network, and the forest certification system.

The environmental benefits from Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) schemes can often be enhanced if private land managers are induced to enrol land in a spatially coordinated manner.

Tree-lines and alleys are expected to operate as migration enhancing corridors for habitat-demanding species, but their functionality is limited by the set of ecological filters. We use multiple plant traits related to dispersal and establishment to identify the limiting filters for forest plants in the rural landscape of Estonia.