Publication: A new mechanism based on landscape diversity for funding farmer subsidies
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Publication Date
2017-04
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Springer Verlag
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Abstract
Agricultural intensification and farm abandonment in Europe have induced dramatic social, economic, and ecological issues. Sustainable management may solve these issues by providing a viable economic margin and preserving biodiversity. Specifically, we propose herein monetary compensation for farmers maintaining or restoring lands as non-agricultural areas. The mechanism for funding this compensation is based upon spatial analysis of two olive-grove landscapes. These exhibited different land-use patterns, a simple landscape and a complex one presenting a 50% higher diversity index and an 80% higher complexity index. We estimated olive-oil production and profitability. Results showed that the complex landscape contains three times more protected habitats. Neither landscape was economically viable, with the simple one showing values of 43% below the threshold, and the complex one 185%. The mechanism proposed to fund farmer subsidies was developed by means of the spatial and economic data estimated. This conservation payment system considers a non-linear relationship between the subsidies paid and the preserved area of agricultural use. The farmers of the simple landscape would receive a subsidy of 299, 394, and 464 €/ha for 10, 20, and 30% of preserved area, respectively. Inversely, the farmers of the complex landscape would be granted a reduction of 38 and 80 €/ha in their monetary incentives for the loss of 10 and 20%, respectively, of natural areas. Using this funding mechanism, conservation of biodiversity in agricultural areas would no longer constitute a factor limiting profitability, but would rather complement earnings.