Threshold effect and co-ordination of agri-environmental efforts

Abstract

This paper deals with policy mechanism designs for agri-environnemental schemes when the bio-physical processes are characterized by threshold effects. There is a threshold effect when specified farming practices must be applied on a minimal share of an area of interest to trigger perceptible changes of the state of the natural environment. Schemes result in a pure economic loss if the induced agro-environmental efforts are not sufficient. Different situations are considered including the lack of information on farmers' characteristics or actions, uncertainty on the relationship between farming practices and environmental quality, and combined difficulties of scheme design.

Incentivising collaborative conservation: Lessons from existing environmental Stewardship Scheme options

“…However, a landscape-scale scheme needs to overcome a participatory threshold for this to happen (Dupraz et al, 2009). Outside organisations have helped overcome this "assurance" problem by convincing farmers of the benefits of working together.…”

“…Contracts incentivising collaborative management must also consider these issues, but additional questions must also be considered beyond those that apply to single agency agreements, such as: the 'assurance' and its closely related "threshold effect" problems (Dupraz et al, 2009) 16 ; 13 This list of support required by advisors co-ordinating individual applications into collective submissions is drawn from a small survey of Natural England AES project officers.…”

Pursuing Integration Between Rural Development Policies and Landscape Planning: Towards a Territorial Governance Approach

“…Pathdependency is also relevant for all AES regarding water pollution prevention, as the effects on a single portion of the land depend on what happens upstream in the water basin. Threshold effects is also an important factor: in many cases, no perceptible change in the environmental state occurs unless a specified farming practice is applied with a minimal intensity and on a minimal area in the zone of interest (Dupraz et al 2009). Given the voluntary nature of AES, this again implies that concentration of actions would be preferable.…”

Agricultural landscapes as multi-scale public good and the role of the Common Agricultural Policy

“…This fosters the possibility to obtain an impact at the landscape-scale if the target area is restricted enough. Agri-environmental contract accounting for threshold effects: the payment to each individual farmer is conditional upon the area intended to be covered by the contracts being greater than the area needed to pass the threshold (Dupraz, Latouche, and Turpin 2009;Kuhfuss, Pr eget, and Thoyer 2014). Agglomeration payment: the basic payment is given for the change in land use, while an additional payment is conditional to the proposed plot being contiguous to another with a similar or distinct land use (Parkhust et al 2002;Lifran 2009;USDA 1998).…”