Auctioning ecological goods within agri-environmental schemes - a new approach and its implementation in species-rich grasslands

Abstract

The species richness of grasslands is dependent on an adapted low input management and cannot be conserved by a mere minimum maintenance of a ‘good agricultural and environmental condition’ – e.g. in the form of an annual mulching – as required by the cross-compliance agreements of the CAP. Existing agri-environmental programmes lack efficiency in nature conservation purposes, as well as acceptance among farmers and population. For this reason, an interdisciplinary research team at the University of Goettingen has developed and implemented a new regional approach in the district of Northeim, Lower Saxony16. Twenty-eight farmers have participated successfully in an auction, offering their ecological services concerning the production of species-rich grasslands. Differentiated prices have been paid for differentiated ecological goods, and 228 ha of species-rich grassland could be remunerated. Farmers began to appreciate their former non-commodity products as valuable goods. Result-oriented promotion of species-richness can therefore be highly sustainable and provide an effective countermeasure against the feared mulching of set-aside grasslands.