The use of innovative contracts to provide agri-environmental public goods: Comparing attitudes between Ireland and other European countries
From Firenze University Press Journal: Bio-based and Applied Economics (BAE)
Tracy Bradfield, Cork University Business School, University College Cork
Thia Hennessy, Cork University Business School, University College Cork
Riccardo D’Alberto, Department of Economics, University of Verona
Emmi Haltia, Natural Resources Institute Finland (LUKE)
The provision of agri-environmental-climate public goods (AECPG) such as biodiversity, water and soil quality, and emissions reduction, was very much to the forefront of the European Union’s (EU) agenda in the prepa-ration of the latest Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) (European Com-mission, 2023a). For example, an aim of both the EU’s Green Deal and the Farm to Fork initiatives is for food systems to become environmentally sus-tainable (European Commission, 2023b). Therefore, it is important that land managers are encouraged to sustainably manage AECPG. In line with this purpose, the present paper investigates innovative agri-environmental contract types. These are contractual arrangements that incentivise farmers to increase the provision of AECPG alongside private goods (Prager et al., 2020) and they are experimental in that they have not been a core fea-ture of traditional agri-environmental schemes (AES) (Bredemeier et al., 2022). The analysis explores the per-ceptions of agricultural and forestry land managers and other stakeholders (advisers, industry representatives, scientists, researchers, etc.) in terms of the understand-ability, applicability, and the perceived economic benefits of results-based, collective action, value chain, and land tenure contracts, both in Ireland and in eleven other European countries. Also, we examine the factors that can contribute to the adoption of these innovative agri-environmental contracts. This paper focuses on the attitudes of Irish land managers and other stakeholders towards innovative contract designs for three reasons. Firstly, agricultural land managers in Ireland play a particularly significant role in the management of AECPG because 72% of land in Ireland is used for agriculture, which is the highest portion of land among EU countries (Eurostat, 2022). As of 2013, 50% of agricultural land in Ireland was under agri-environmental commitments (Eurostat, 2023a). However, regardless of this figure, all land managers inf luence AECPG such as biodiversity, water quality and carbon sequestration to some degree. Therefore, any efforts to increase the adoption of AES by farmers can help to improve AECPG provision. Secondly, agriculture in Ireland faces considerable environmental chal-lenges as 37% of total greenhouse gas emissions and over 99% of ammonia emissions arise from agriculture due to the large livestock sector (DECC, 2021). Additional worries include concerns over biodiversity loss (Biodi-versity Information System, 2022) and unsatisfactory water quality (EPA, 2022), all of which can be managed through effective contract designs. Attitudes towards the four innovative contract designs discussed here have not been previously assessed in the context of Ireland, while a general shortage of debate in relation to the subject exists in the literature (Bredemeier et al., 2022), with studies, such as D’Alberto et al. (2023), focusing on specific territories and case studies. To advance under-standing and to improve the design of innovative agri-environmental contracts, the EU has funded several projects under the HORIZON 2020 Programme, such as the CONSOLE project (CONSOLE, 2023) within which the present work was carried out.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/bae-14444
Read Full Text: https://oaj.fupress.net/index.php/bae/article/view/14444
