An outcome-based payment scheme for the promotion of biodiversity in the cultural landscape

Abstract

Internalising positive externalities of land use through agrarian politics is state of the art both politically and scientifically. Currently, farmers receive compensation payments for ecological goods and services in the framework of agri-environmental programs, which are predominantly action-orientated. For further development of these programs, however, the social acceptance and the efficiency of the programs have to be improved. This paper describes a decentralised outcome-based payment scheme which meets these requirements: Within this payment scheme, farmers will be rewarded for the outcomes of ecological services. These outcomes are ecological goods that represent plant biodiversity. The payment scheme takes into consideration fundamental criteria of market economy such as supply and demand. On a voluntary basis, farmers may offer ecological goods e. g., through a bidding procedure. The payment scheme is a regional program in the sense of the EU-principle of subsidiarity, and the preferences for ecological goods of the local population will be taken into account through a participatory approach.