Cost-benefit analysis of the Dutch nature conservation policy: direct, indirect effects and transaction costs of the ecological main structure in the Netherlands

The scattering of nature areas in the Netherlands and the increased demand for nature lead to a governmental project in 1990 to complete a network of nature favouring areas, the ecological main structure, in 2018. The financial and economic costs and benefits of this project were analysed. Targets for purchasing of agricultural land and conversion into nature were adjusted several times as the land price doubled between 1995 and 2000. The purchasing rate still has to double, which will probably drive up the land price even further. The alternative is long-term contracts with farmers or private landowners for nature conservation

Resilience of European farms under different CAP scenarios

The upcoming reform of the Common Agricultural Policy will put pressure on agricultural incomes and will cause more price volatility and income risk for farms in the EU. This raises the question if and how farms will survive these disturbances. Farms are able to survive only if they respond appropriately to disturbances. This resilience of farms is explained in this research by analysing the number of strategies that farmers indicate that they will use in a situation where the current CAP will continue and in a situation where it will disappear. The outcomes show that under both scenarios large more specialised farms with young farm heads are most resilient, and small more diversified farms headed by old farmers are least resilient. Results also show that farms that indicate to exit are the ones that are most dependent on CAP support, have old farm heads, and are part-time and diversified farms

Institutional economics analysis of contractual arrangements; managing wildlife and landscape on Dutch farms

This thesis focused on land use in which agriculture is combined with wildlife and landscape management. The objective of the study was to analyse the design of contractual arrangements for wildlife and landscape management by farmers. An important method used in this thesis was a literary approach combined with statistical tools using data from mail surveys. The literary approach is based on theory and makes use of close reasoning. Other methods used were formal models concerning the decision to contract and the consequences of contracting at the farm level. This thesis has concentrated on the supply side, especially on the institutional organisation. The research focussed on institutional aspects of wildlife and landscape management and contributed to the study of wildlife and landscape because it helps to establish a link between supply and demand. This study has shown that contractual arrangements and environmental co-operatives are suitable arrangements for the provision of wildlife and landscape, and that they deserve attention from the viewpoint of empirical science as well as of policy makers

Meervoudig landgebruik in Winterswijk : zelforganisatie voor een aantrekkelijk landschap

Dit onderzoek komt voort uit een behoefte om in een proces van gebiedsontwikkeling vraag en aanbod van landschapdiensten op elkaar af te stemmen en te concretiseren. De relatie tussen ontwikkelingen en wensen in het gebied en ontwikkelingen op provinciaal en landelijk niveau is hierbij van belang. De vraag speelt in hoeverre een dergelijk proces kan worden ondersteund. Door samen te werken kunnen interne baten zoals kostenbesparingen bij het organiseren van activiteiten worden gerealiseerd. Meer concreet, gemeenschappelijke doelstellingen zouden kunnen worden ondersteund door het aanstellen van 1 of 2 personen gedurende een paar jaar om trekkracht te organiseren (het schrijven van projectvoorstellen), door met een aantal projecten de zichtbaarheid te vergroten en door het organiseren van een comité van aanbeveling. De verzilvering van externe baten kreeg tijdens het atelier de nodige aandacht door te kijken naar geld dat beschikbaar is voor landscha

Economic Governance to Expand Commercial Wetlands: Within- and Cross-Scale Challenges

Commercial wetlands are defined as wetlands directed by an entrepreneur with the intention of making a profit. The combination of ecosystem services that commercial wetlands can provide seems to be an attractive societal perspective. Nevertheless, these wetlands are not developed on a large scale in the Netherlands. This paper discusses different types of economic governance that could facilitate the development of new commercial wetlands and addresses challenges that have to be overcome. We conclude that developing governance solutions that address ecosystem services with different scales is crucial for the introduction of commercial wetlands. Also, distinct and autonomous property rights of entrepreneurs need to be addressed

Resilience in rural common-pool resource management systems: towards enhancing landscape amenities using a multi-agent approach

Rural areas are continuously subject to changing circumstances, varying from changes in ecosystem conditions to socio-economic changes like food- and financial crises. Within Europe, the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reform is driver as well for change of rural common pool resources (CPR). Rural CPRs are defined as rural social-ecological systems which provide landscapes with high agricultural, ecological and cultural-historical values. The conservation of these systems is treated as the enhancement of these values through the protection of rare plant species. Analyzing resilience of rural CPRs offers a framework to emphasize dynamics and interdependencies across time, space and between social, economic and ecological domains. This paper provides insight into the effects of CAP reforms on rural CPRs and its resilience, through the use of a multi-agent simulation approach. The advantage of such a multi-agent approach is that it allows to capture interactions of heterogeneous agents in a landscape that provides space for both agriculture and rare plant species. The simulation model is applied for Winterswijk, which is a rural region in eastern part of the Netherlands. This CPR is characterized by a small scale landscape with high biodiversity. Transferring insights from resilience thinking to rural development strategies would lead to a focus on the factors that build the ability of the rural area to respond to policy changes. The strength of multi-agent models is illustrated and their potential for the analysis of different policy options and implications in rural areas is shown

From scaling to governance of the land system: bridging ecological and economic perspectives

One of the main unresolved problems in policy making is the step from scale issues to effective governance. What is appropriate for a lower level, such as a region or location, might be considered undesirable at a global scale. Linking scaling to governance is an important issue for the improvement of current environmental management and policies. Whereas social–ecological science tends to focus on adaptive behavior and aspects of spatial ecological data, new institutional economics focuses more on levels in institutional scales and temporal dimensions. Consequently, both disciplines perceive different scaling challenges while aiming at a similar improvement of effective governance. We propose that future research needs to focus on four themes: (1) How to combine spatial properties such as extent and grain with the economic units of market and agent; (2) How to combine the different governance instruments proposed by both perspectives; (3) How to communicate the different scaling perspectives (hierarchy vs. no hierarchy) and meanings to policy makers and other stakeholders; and (4) How to deal with the non-equilibrium conditions in the real world and the disciplinary perspectives. Here, we hypothesize that a combined system perspective of both disciplines will improve our understanding of the missing link between scaling and governanc