Towards a Step Change for Enhanced Delivery of Environmental and Social Benefits from EU Farming and Forestry

Abstract

Summary More environmentally sensitive management of farmland and forestry is needed in Europe in response to increasing public demand and to meet the requirements of EU legislation for example on biodiversity. However, the provision of environmental and social public goods from farmland and forestry is not increasing at the required pace. A step change in approach is required: the opportunity could be provided by the current debate on adopting a more performance focussed model of the Common Agricultural Policy. Current policy mechanisms, including regulation and a range of incentives to individual farmers, meet part of the need but are not sufficient. Detailed analysis of 34 cases across the EU has convinced us that a new approach based on greater engagement with a wider range of key actors through collective actions could have greater ambition. It could aim for greater scale, longevity and coherence of action across a territory or along a supply chain. Building trust and establishing the right form of governance for highly diverse networks and types of cooperation is vital. Commercial actors in the supply chain could play a larger role. Links between flexible and extended forms of policy support, including for new initiatives, multi‐stakeholder partnerships and projects and for facilitators, will be needed.

Assessment of the growth in social groups for sustainable agriculture and land management

“…For as long as people and cultures have managed natural resources, collective action has produced systems of efficient and effective offtake, as well as offering potential for sustaining natural capital and valued flows of ecosystem services (FAO, 2016b; Folke et al , 2010; Kelly, 1995; King, 1911; Li Wenhua, 2001). A wide range of different types of more sustainable agriculture and land management have recently been developed and implemented, most centring on the notion that making more of existing land by sustainable intensification and collective action can result in greater and synergistic co-production of food and ecosystem services (Benton, 2015; FAO, 2016c; Foresight, 2011; Maréchal et al , 2018; Pretty et al , 2018). Yet at the same time, agriculture and land management have also contributed to biodiversity loss, nutrient loading of the biosphere, climate forcing, depletion of aquifers and surface water and pollution of air, soil and water (IPBES, 2019; Rockström et al , 2009, 2017).…”

“…Social groups have been formed in industrialized countries to develop cooperative approaches towards sustainable practices, and they include concept-orientated research clusters and Groupement Agricole d'Exploitation en Common in France (Agarwal & Dorin, 2019; Caron et al , 2008), Practical Farmers of Iowa (2019), No-Till on the Plains (2019) in Kansas and the Ecological Farmers Association of Ontario (2019). Across all of the EU, 900 EIP Agri-Operational groups have been formed to aid farmer innovation (EIP Agri-Operational Groups, 2019); and within 10 countries, 34 projects investigated as part of the PEGASUS project have been engaged in rehabilitating orchards, wilding headwaters, improving groundwater quality, creating biosphere reserves, developing IPM and creating new haymilk systems for upland farmers, with the aim of achieving persistent improvements in natural capital by engaging in social action within defined geographical areas (Maréchal et al , 2018).…”

“…The latter needs facilitation and support, a particular challenge where investments in extension are small or where public extension systems no longer exist. Nonetheless, where geographically based groups are formed, both productivity and natural capital outcomes can be substantial (Maréchal et al , 2018).…”

Applying a social-ecological approach to enhancing provision of public goods through agriculture and forestry activities across the European Union

“…The former looks through the lens of (neoclassical) economics while the latter provides an environmental science-based point of view (MEA, 2005;Dwyer et al, 2015). In order to capture both social and environmental aspects in an integrated way, the project elaborated a working concept that emphasises the intended 'positive' outcomes by the term 'environmentally and socially beneficial outcomes' (ESBOs) (Maréchal et al, 2016). Acknowledging the vast spatial differences in the environmental and socio-cultural context (van Zanten et al, 2014), as well as the differences in panEuropean land use history and institutional settings, the project bases its empirical evidence on a set of 34 case studies in varied topographical and climatic conditions across ten EU Member States (Figure 1) (Maréchal et al, 2016).…”

Private Sector Actions to Valorise Public Benefits from Agriculture and Forestry

“…In this regard, the linkages between the CAP and other policies are relevant as well. For more on the policy implications of PEGASUS, we refer the reader to the Point de Vue in this issue (Maréchal et al ., ).…”