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

Findings from surveys in Austria and Germany

Through agri-environmental schemes, farmers are compensated on a contractual basis for environmental and climate services. To encourage participation, the schemes must be attractive; the specific design plays a crucial role, especially for new and relatively unknown agri-environmental climate schemes. In the EU project CONSOLE, 23 partner institutions from 13 countries researched the design of these innovative contractual solutions, focusing on aspects such as:

• Results-based/outcome-oriented approaches: Contracts with pre-defined environmental/climate targets 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 for this purpose.

In a paper (Thünen Working Paper 218) by Tania Runge (Thünen Institute), Theresa Eichhorn (HBLFA Raumberg-Gumpenstein), and Lena Schaller (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna), the Austrian and German results are presented. The paper focuses on two surveys regarding the acceptance of outcome-based and collective contractual solutions. One survey was conducted with farmers (AT: 152, DE: 146 participants), and the other with stakeholders (AT: 34, DE: 51 participants).

The results show that the proportion of farmers who could envision participating in results-based contracts was significantly higher than for collective agreements. In terms of practical feasibility and economic viability, results-based contracts were also rated more favorably by farmers and stakeholders in both countries than collective agreements. The practical feasibility of collective agreements was rated particularly low by Austrian stakeholders. Environmental aspects that stakeholders and farmers believe can be significantly improved with a results-based contract include "biodiversity" and "landscape and landscape character"; "soil quality" was also frequently mentioned. For collective agreements, all parties most frequently cited "landscape and landscape character," followed by "biodiversity." Furthermore, German stakeholders believe that collective agreements are well-suited to 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)

More information about the CONSOLE project and further results can be found via the provided partner links.