Multiple factors control the environmental effectiveness of agri-environment schemes: implications for design and evaluation

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.