Efficient conservation in Europe's agricultural countryside - Rationale, methods and policy reorientation

Europe's countryside has no parallel in the world. The most urgent conservation measures imply the continuation or resumption of traditional agricultural practices in sufficiently large areas. The economic situation of the agricultural sector is likely to justify heavy subsidies for many years to come. But in the long run, subsidies are untenable. It is argued that current subsidies should be transformed into remunerations for ecological services including conservation. Although agri-environmental programmes seem to translate this argument into practice, society is still far from accepting that the production of agricultural commodities and the 'production' of conservation services can be regarded as equivalent.