Environmental auditing according to EMAS on agricultural holdings

Since 2001 farmers have been able to join the eco-management and audit scheme EMAS which has been introduced EU-wide by the European Community. The objective of EMAS is to achieve continuous improvements in the environmental performance of farms and to ensure the compliance with existing legislation. In a pilot project, the eco-management scheme was tested on Bavarian family farms. The advantages arising from EMAS are, above all, greater legal certainty and an image boost, but not a better marketing position. Operating expenses can also be lowered to some extent because of the more transparent organisational structure. Due to comprehensive documentation requirements, the implementation of the scheme involves excessive expenditure for family farms. There are improvements of environmental performance if a detailed analysis of gathered data is conducted and the results are put into practice on the farm.