Farmer perceptions of ‘results’ and “good-farmer” in the context of a proposed payment-for-results agri-environment scheme

Description

Union, including in Finland. AES are mainly action-based, meaning payment is made for following specific farming practices, with the assumption that the management will result in desired outcome. Shortcomings of the current system are found in
policy aims and monitoring, in implementation under varied site conditions, and in cultural sustainability. AES efficiency could be improved by becoming more results-oriented, improving targeting and tailoring of measures, articulating objectives more
clearly, and creating clearer indicators for measuring success.
The payment-by-results (PBR) approach has been recommended as a way to overcome obstacles of the action-based approach. PBR refers to payment schemes that reward farmers or land managers for results achieved rather than actions undertaken and can be considered a type of payment for ecosystem services.
We developed a hypothetical PBR scheme (Birge et al. 2017) using nature management field (NMG) (luonnonhoitopelto), an
existing measure, as an example. We interviewed 20 farmers with NMG in Uusimaa, Finland. Farmers were generally
favourable toward the approach.
A particular theme of interest for development of the PBR approach that emerged from the interviews is farmer perceptions of
what constitutes an “outcome”, or result, of an AES. We hypothesise that the current practice in AES of paying for actions
rather than outcome has obscured the nature conservation meaning behind measures like NMG. This may affect farmer
understanding of the principle underpinning the PBR scheme and may have implications for successful introduction of PBR for
achieving biodiversity targets.
In this paper, we examine farmer perceptions of ‘result’ in regard to NMG and the proposed PBR bonus scheme alternative,
and explore the implications of those perceptions for developing PBR schemes for managing for nature values, particularly
biodiversity.

Period	8 Jun 2017
Event title	The 13th Nordic Environmental Social Science Conference HopefulNESS: , 6.-8.6.2017, Tampere, Finland.
Event type	Conference
Conference number	13
Location	Tampere, FinlandShow on map