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OECD work on Agri-environmental Indicators
(AEIs)
is primarily aimed at policy makers and the wider
public interested in the development, trends and the use of
agri-environmental indicators for policy purposes. The focus of
the work is in particular related to indicator definitions,
methodologies and calculation of indicators.
Many of the agri-environmental indicators being developed are
of importance beyond OECD Member countries, for example, on
issues covering soil and water quality, and the use of
nutrients, pesticides and water by agriculture.
The general objectives of OECD work
on AEIs are intended
to:
- Provide information on the current state and
changes in the conditions of the environment in
agriculture.
- Assist policy makers to better understand the
linkages between the causes and impacts of agriculture,
agricultural policy reform, trade liberalisation and
environmental measures on the environment, and help to guide
their responses to changes in environmental conditions.
- Contribute to monitoring and evaluating the
effectiveness of policies addressing agri-environmental
concerns and promoting sustainable agriculture, including
future looking perspectives of agri-environmental
linkages.
OECD work on AEIs covers four main
areas:
- Agriculture in the broader economic,
social and environmental context, setting the
AEIs in a broader context by considering contextual
information and indicators, that is the influence on
agri-environmental relationships of: economic forces (e.g.
farm production, employment), societal preferences (e.g.
rural viability), environmental processes (e.g. interaction
of agriculture with biophysical conditions) and land use
changes (e.g. agricultural land use). One of the key
contextual issues concerns farm financial resources and their
relation to environmental outcomes in terms of farm level
income and public and private agri-environmental
expenditure.
- Farm management and the
environment , examining the relationship
between different farming practices and systems and their
impact on the environment, covering whole farm management
practices that encompass overall trends in farming methods,
including organic farming, as well as nutrient, pest, soil
and irrigation management practices.
- Use of farm inputs and natural
resources , tracking trends in the use of farm
inputs, covering nutrients (e.g. fertilisers, manure),
pesticides (including risks), and water use intensity,
efficiency, stress and the price of water paid by farmers
relative to other users in the economy.
- Environmental impacts of
agriculture , monitoring the extent of
agriculture's impact on the environment covering: soil
quality, water quality, land conservation, greenhouse gases,
biodiversity, wildlife habitats and landscape.
Click
here for the complete list of the OECD AEIs included in the
latest publication, OECD (2001) Environmental Indicators for
Agriculture Volume 3: Methods and Results.
The OECD, through its various studies and activities, is
exploring a range of applications for better using indicators
for policy purposes, as summarised below.
The Use of Agri-environmental Indicators in
Recent OECD Studies and Activities
Agri-environmental indicators (AEIs) have been used as
supporting information across a range of recent OECD studies
and activities, as outlined below.
- Agricultural Policies in OECD Countries
Monitoring and Evaluation Report , an annual report
which includes information and data on the policies and
effects of agriculture on the environment, see the OECD agriculture web
site.
- Agri-environmental related policy studies
, an irregular series of reports which examine different
agri-environmental related policy issues. For further
information see the web site.
- Review of Agricultural Policies , are
country policy reviews of non-member OECD countries, such as
the reviews of Roumania and Slovenia, which have used the
AEIs in the sections covering agri-environmental issues, see
the OECD agriculture web
site.
- Environmental Performance Review country
series examine the environmental performance of OECD
countries and some non-OECD countries, including in certain
reviews a special feature on agriculture drawing on the AEIs,
for example, Denmark, see OECD Environmental
web site.
- Economic Working Papers , with special
focus in some papers on sustainable development, including
reference to agriculture, see for example Finland and Norway,
at the OECD Economics
web site.
- Agricultural and Environmental Outlook
Reports , these include forecasting studies of
agricultural trends, including recently a focus on greenhouse
gases, and the Environmental Outlook and Strategy to the year
2020, including a section on agriculture. For further
information on the OECD Environmental Outlook activity see
the
web site.
- Sustainable development , is a major
horizontal activity for the OECD, examining the broader
economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable
development, including reference to issues related to
sustainable agriculture, natural resources and indicators,
see the OECD
sustainable development web site.
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