CAP and the Rural Environment in Transition

In recent years policy makers have had to respond to criticisms of the environmentally damaging role of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The 1992 reform of the CAP partly addressed the criticisms by reducing the incentives to intensify production and by promoting the beneficial effects of agriculture on landscape and biodiversity. In assessing the consequences of these changes it is important to bear in mind the variability of agricultural production systems and of environmental conditions in different EU Member States. Uniform responses or single environmental outcomes from a change in agricultural policy are unlikely. The book therefore addresses addresses the environmental effects of agricultural policy reform from the different national perspectives. In providing an overview of the role of the CAP in the rural environment in transition, it explores key linkages between agricultural policy and the physical environment, landscape and biodiversity. The book is aimed at policy makers and researchers in the fields of agricultural and environmental economics and rural geography, interested in the linkages between agricultural policy and the environment.