The role of agri‐environment schemes in conservation and environmental management

Over half of the European landscape is under agricultural management and has been for millennia. Many species and ecosystems of conservation concern in Europe depend on agricultural management and are showing ongoing declines. Agri-environment schemes (AES) are designed partly to address this. They are a major source of nature conservation funding within the European Union (EU) and the highest conservation expenditure in Europe. We reviewed the structure of current AES across Europe. Since a 2003 review questioned the overall effectiveness of AES for biodiversity, there has been a plethora of case studies and meta-analyses examining their effectiveness. Most syntheses demonstrate general increases in farmland…

• AF
  Arcadia Fund
• SR
  Sight Research UK

  Award: NE/K015419/1
• DF
  Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

  Awards: DFG BA4438/1-1, BA4438/1-1
• NE
  Natural Environment Research Council

  Awards: NE/K015419/1, NE/K015419/1
• SF
  Seventh Framework Programme

  Award: 311781