Assessing long-term sustainable environmental impacts of agri-environment schemes on land use |
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Authors: | Jens Peter Vesterager Kasper Teilmann Henrik Vejre |
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Institution: | (1) Forest and Landscape, University of Copenhagen, Rolighedsvej 23, 1958 Frederiksberg, Denmark;(2) Centre for Tourism and Culture Management, Copenhagen Business School, Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark |
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Abstract: | The lack of generic methods to assess the environmental consequences of agricultural practices and the lack of consensus on
monitoring and evaluation of environmental, agricultural and socio-economic effects of agri-environment schemes (AES) in EU
Member States call for better evaluation methods. The ‘Agri-environmental Footprint’ project proposed to deal with these problems
by establishing a new evaluation method, the Agri-Environmental Footprint Index (AFI). The AFI is an index customised to local
stakeholder preferences, using expert knowledge for assessment of impacts and sensitivity, and indicators of the environmental
state at farm level. In a Danish test case, agricultural practices at twenty-five farms in two groundwater protection zones
were assessed. Data was collected from databases, registers, maps and interviews with farmers. The index was calculated for
1996/7 and 2006/7 to track temporal development and effects of entering an agri-environmental scheme. The Danish case demonstrated
that the index can be used to track changes in environmental impacts and that entering agri-environmental scheme had a positive
impact on the index value. However, the index should be used with caution. It is important to consider the robustness of each
indicator: to assess whether changes will occur over time; whether changes are linked to management practices or external
factors; and whether data are available up to date. Indicators dependent upon uptake data from agri-environmental schemes
should be used with great caution. Retrospective use of stakeholder preferences is subject to uncertainty because preferences
may have changed over time. |
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