Runner up BPPA 1997 UK implementation of agri‐environment regulation 2078/92/EEC: enthusiastic supporter or reluctant participant?

Abstract

This paper discusses the UK response to Agri‐environment Regulation 2078/92/EEC, which recognized the need for increased emphasis to be placed on the landscape and environmental value of agriculture. It is argued that the UK has been a reluctant participant in the Regulation and that it has largely failed to put into place an innovative and far‐sighted policy package when opportunities were offered in the early 1990s. Four specific reasons are discussed that help explain the reluctance to expand substantially the UK agri‐environmental programme. Top‐down policy‐making structures have hindered the incorporation of ideas from the grassroots level; a predominance of productivist thinking amongst policy makers has reduced the urge for comprehensive, holistic and well‐funded agri‐environmental schemes; an historically strong emphasis on targeted habitat protection has hampered the introduction of horizontal agri‐environmental measures; and the changing role of pressure groups within the agri‐environmental policy bargaining process has resulted in policy incrementalism rather than reform. The paper concludes by arguing that state and non‐state policy makers in the UK need to rethink their agri‐environmental policy approaches if more sustainable and effective policies are to be implemented in the future.