Adverse Selection in the Environmental Stewardship Scheme: Evidence in the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme?

The Environmental Stewardship Scheme provides payments to farmers for the provision of environmental services based on foregone agricultural income. This creates a potential incentive compatibility problem which, combined with an information asymmetry on farm land heterogeneity, could lead to adverse selection of farmers into the Scheme and therefore reduced cost-effectiveness of the Scheme. This reduced cost-effectiveness would be represented by a systematic overpayment of farmers for the land enrolled into the Scheme, compared to the opportunity cost of production. This paper examines the potential adverse selection problem affecting the higher tier of the Environmental Stewardship, the Higher Level Stewardship, using a principal agent framework combined with farm-level data on participation in the HLS. Empirically, it is found that, at the farm level, HLS participation is negatively related to cereal yields, suggesting the existence of adverse selection in the HLS and farmer overcompensation from entering the scheme.Adverse selection, agri-environment, Environmental Stewardship, principal-agent, contract, Environmental Economics and Policy, D78, D82, H44, Q18, Q58,

Adverse Selection in the Environmental Stewardship Scheme: Does the Higher Level Entry Scheme Design Reduce Adverse Selection?

The Environmental Stewardship Scheme provides payments to farmers for the provision of environmental services based on agricultural foregone income. This creates a potential incentive compatibility problem which, combined with an information asymmetry on farm land heterogeneity, could lead to adverse selection of farmers into the scheme. However, the Higher Level Scheme (HLS) design includes some features that potentially reduce adverse selection. This paper studies the adverse selection problem of the HLS using a principal agent framework at the regional level. It is found that, at the regional level, the enrolment of more land from lower payment regions for a given budget constraint has led to a greater overall contracted area (and thus potential environmental benefit) which has had the effect of reducing the adverse selection problem. In addition, for landscape regions with the same payment rate (i.e. of the same agricultural value), differential weighting of the public demand for environmental goods and services provided by agriculture (measured by weighting an environmental benefit function by the distance to main cities) appears to be reflected into the regulator’s allocation of contracts, thereby also reducing the adverse selection problem

Adverse Selection in the Environmental Stewardship Scheme: Evidence in the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme?

The Environmental Stewardship Scheme provides payments to farmers for the provision of environmental services based on foregone agricultural income. This creates a potential incentive compatibility problem which, combined with an information asymmetry on farm land heterogeneity, could lead to adverse selection of farmers into the Scheme and therefore reduced cost-effectiveness of the Scheme. This reduced cost-effectiveness would be represented by a systematic overpayment of farmers for the land enrolled into the Scheme, compared to the opportunity cost of production. This paper examines the potential adverse selection problem affecting the higher tier of the Environmental Stewardship, the Higher Level Stewardship, using a principal agent framework combined with farm-level data on participation in the HLS. Empirically, it is found that, at the farm level, HLS participation is negatively related to cereal yields, suggesting the existence of adverse selection in the HLS and farmer overcompensation from entering the scheme

Présentation et analyse des résultats de l’enquête « PÊCHE RÉCRÉATIVE »

L’UMR 6308 – AMURE (IUEM) de l’Université de Bretagne occidentale (UBO) est responsable de la réalisation de l’action 3 (WP3) du projet FISH INTEL, intitulée « Gouvernance, services écosystémiques et société ». C’est dans ce cadre que l’UBO a conduit des entretiens semi-directifs auprès de pêcheurs récréatifs des Côtes d’Armor et du Finistère, pour mieux comprendre cette activité et les enjeux qui l’entourent, entretiens qui ont servis de guide pour l’élaboration d’une enquête quantitative dont les résultats sont rapportés dans ce document. L’enquête collecte auprès des pêcheurs récréatifs en Manche leurs connaissances, visions et opinions sur leur activité de pêche, les mesures de gestion actuelles et leur bien-être dans la pratique de cette activité. La diffusion de l’enquête s’est faite sur internet entre le 13 juillet et le 5 septembre 2022 auprès d’associations de pêche récréative, clubs de plongée, gestionnaires de ports de plaisance, magasins et guides de pêche et d’une école de pêche, ainsi que sur les différents réseaux sociaux du projet. Les résultats de l’enquête présentés dans ce document serviront à nourrir les discussions sur le bien-être des pêcheurs récréatifs, la cohabitation entre les différents usages et, plus généralement, la gestion des ressources et de l’écosystème marin

Professional and recreational fishers of Channel/Manche (France,England): Health & Wellbeing, Local Ecological Knowledge, views on current and future fisheries management

Within the framework of task T3.1.1 entitled ''Knowledge gathering for acoustic network design and social-benefit assessment'' of Work Package 3 aimed at ''Society, ecosystem services and governance'', semi-structured interviews, focus groups and a quantitative survey targeting professional and recreational fishers as well as local administrations in the Channel/Manche were carried out by the University of Brest (UBO) and the University of Plymouth (UoP). This deliverable has multiples objectives: i) compiling fisher’s Local Ecological Knowledge (LEK) to support the identification of locations for acoustic device deployment; ii) reporting opinions of professional and recreational fishers related to current and future management systems to support the design of EBFM road maps, and iii) assessing the level of well-being of the two categories of fishers through qualitative and quantitative surveys focusing on mental and physical health, working conditions, economic situation, etc. The following report is structured along the topics resulting from our data analysis