Agri-environmental services through results-based and collective contract solutions

Findings from surveys in Austria and Germany

Through agri-environmental measures, farmers are compensated for environmental and climate services on a contractual basis. To decide to participate, the measures must be attractive; The specific design plays a major role, particularly with new and relatively unknown agri-environmental climate measures. In the EU project CONSOLE, 23 partner institutions from 13 countries researched the design of these new contract solutions, the focus of which was, among other things:

• Results-based/outcome-oriented approaches: Contracts with predetermined environmental/climate goals that are named as reference parameters (for remuneration).
• Collective implementation/cooperation: Contracts that aim at the joint provision of agri-environmental/climate services and implement formalized cooperation between farmers/actors.

The Austrian and German results are now presented in a contribution (Thünen Working Paper 218) by Tania Runge (Thünen Institute), Theresa Eichhorn ( HBLFA The focus of the article is two surveys on the acceptance of results-based and collective contract solutions. A survey was conducted with farmers (AT: 152, DE: 146 participants) and a survey with stakeholders ( AT: 34, DE: 51 participants).

The results show that the proportion of farmers who could imagine participating in results-based contracts was significantly higher than in collective contracts. The results-based contract was also rated better than the collective contract by farmers and stakeholders in both countries in terms of practical feasibility and cost-effectiveness. The practical feasibility of collective contracts was rated particularly low by the Austrian stakeholders. Environmental aspects that, according to stakeholders and farmers, can be improved well with an outcome-based contract type are “biodiversity” and “landscape and landscape”; but “soil quality” was also frequently mentioned. In collective agreements, all parties mentioned “landscape and landscape” most frequently, followed by “biodiversity”. In addition, German stakeholders can well imagine that collective contracts are suitable for improving “water quality”.

For more detailed results, the article is available at the following link:

Agri-environmental services through results-based and collective contract solutions – findings from surveys in Austria and Germany (thuenen.de)

You can find more information about the CONSOLE project and other results under the partner links provided.