A review of environmental benefits supplied by agri-environment schemes

This six-month project was undertaken for the UK Land Use Policy Group aimed to provide a comprehensive review of the evidence for the provision of environmental benefits by UK agri-environment schemes. It also sought to summarise and evaluate the evidence base for delivery of environmental benefits.

The research provided the LUPG group with a comprehensive summary of the available evidence from research, monitoring and evaluation projects involving agri-environment schemes in the UK. It also included a qualitative assessment of the potential contribution of observed uptake levels to delivery of scheme objectives and a synthesis and interpretation of the evidence base to provide a concise summary of the evidence for the provision of environmental benefits.

The research was undertaken with the Central Science Laboratory, who focussed on the natural science aspects of environmental benefits with the CCRI looking at other aspects such as landscape, heritage and access. The CCRI team was led by Peter Gaskell, with support from Chris Short, Jane Mills and Janet Dwyer. The final report was submitted in June 2008.