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Multiple factors control the environmental effectiveness of agri-environment schemes: implications for design and evaluation
Finn, John Kurz, Isabelle Bourke, David
Finn, John
Kurz, Isabelle
Bourke, David
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2008
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Multiple factors control the environmental effectiveness of agri-environment schemes: implications for design and evaluation. John A. Finn, Isabelle Kurz, David Bourke. Tearmann: Irish journal of agri-environmental research, (2008), 6, 45-56
Abstract
Achieving and evaluating the environmental effectiveness of agri-environment schemes (AESs) has proven difficult. The design and ex ante evaluation of AESs is a crucial phase for ensuring effectiveness, but seems
to receive relatively little attention. We propose a programme theory (a structured description of the various cause-and-effect relationships that underpin and achieve a policy initiative) for AESs that considers
multiple factors that drive environmental performance at farm-scale (appropriate farm-level objectives, farmer compliance, implementation by institutions, and cause-and-effect relationship between management prescriptions and environmental objectives), and factors that determine how farm-scale
performance aggregates to produce scheme-scale performance (participation rate, targeting, and threshold effects). These factors can be used as assessment criteria with which to pinpoint specific causes of AES
failure, and thereby offer a practical approach to complement the design and evaluation of the environmental effects of AESs.