Suchergebnisse

AbstractThe cross compliance instrument is an EU wide policy mechanism that ties the payment of the remaining agricultural subsidies to compliance with environmental, animal welfare and food safety standards. Policy negotiations concerning the exact nature of the conditions in individual Member States draw on different environmental and economic circumstances and differing interpretations of farmers' role in the rural environment. This article reports on two case studies of decision‐making concerning the national cross compliance rules in England and Finland. Actor Network Theory is employed in order to understand how socio‐economic and environmental contexts combine to influence and constrain interviewed decision‐makers and the propositions they make regarding power and action in the implementation of the cross compliance mechanism. The approach uncovers some significant differences in the normative logic of how cross compliance is interpreted and delivered in the studied countries and highlights how 'baseline environmental standards' imply very different obligations for farmers in different member states. It is evident that a more flexible policy approach is needed to achieve a minimum level of environmental protection throughout the EU.

This paper analyses the integration of environmental standards into the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). It focuses on the negotiation of the new environmental cross compliance rules, which were incorporated in the CAP's 2003 mid-term review and which now define a baseline level of environmental protection that a farm needs to adhere to in order to receive agricultural subsidies. Cross compliance has been lauded as an important new mechanism for greening agriculture, a policy sector which is under increasing pressure to mitigate its environmental impact. Using a discourse oriented approach this paper sheds further light on this assertion by assessing how far cross compliance actually represents a shift in policy goals and priorities. It does so by outlining the premises of decision-making and the range of policy problems that cross compliance was perceived to address in the agricultural sector. The discourse approach highlights the critical importance of agenda setting in policy design, an area that has received little attention in literature on environmental policy integration. The analysis reveals that instead of conforming to a single dominant policy agenda which raises the status of environmental protection requirements, a number of conflicting agendas have influenced the design of the new mechanism. The results show how persisting agrarian as well as market oriented aspirations ride the wave created by pressure to green the sector. This raises doubts about the ability of cross compliance to deliver environmental outputs in practice.

The role and importance of street‐level bureaucrats in policy implementation is now widely recognised. So far as the EU's agri‐environmental policy is concerned, however, a focus on the attitudes and behaviour of programme recipients (farmers and other land managers) has tended to obscure the role of street‐level bureaucrats responsible for extending and advising on schemes and the impact of their interpretive frameworks and communication practices on policy outcomes. This paper draws on interviews with extensionists and advisers in England and Finland in order to explore the different interpretations, which these actors bring to the implementation of agrienvironmental policy and to reflect on the implications of this for the way environmental advice is currently being offered to farmers within the agri‐environmental network.

This book examines the flow of investment into rural land assets in Europe, particularly farmland, woodland and wineries, but extending also to leisure uses such as golf courses and theme parks. It explores the characteristics of investors in rural land and their motivations before undertaking an analysis of the place impacts of investment, viewing 'new money' as a potential development opportunity, delivering a variety of outcomes for local landscapes and communities. After providing introductory insights into rural land investment and the measurement of associated impacts, ten case studies - from different European locations - explore actual investment motives and local impacts. The book concludes with a synthesis of investment experiences and an assessment of the transformative changes brought to rural areas by the flow of new money.

Global land ownership patterns have been shifting in recent decades, as institutional and non-traditional investors redirect capital into rural areas. Such investment is a stimulating alternative for innovative profit-driven land uses that move beyond agriculture. This paper explores how 'new money' economies have created place effects in three rural case studies across the United Kingdom, through concepts of built, natural, social, and economic capital. The case studies are informed by secondary research, site visits, and interviews, providing snapshots of investment impact. They represent diverse transformations in rural land use via new forms of direct investment, active investment, and processes of financing rather than financialisation, with distinct spatial and temporal characteristics. The case studies include new wine production in Kent, England; transforming the Menie Estate into Trump International Golf Links Scotland (TIGLS); and farm diversification in Northern Ireland. The conclusions tell three investment stories, where place effects reflect the dichotomies, contestation, and symbiosis between investors and local contexts. New land uses create place effects where economic potential often conflicts with natural capital impacts, although they foster knowledge creation and exchange. The underlying values of the investors and their navigation of local politics also have key roles to play in shaping the built, natural, social, and economic place effects.