Recruiting the new conservationists: Farmersʹ adoption of agri-environmental schemes in the U.K.

Financial incentives available to farmers under the Governmentʹs relaunched agri-environmental policy (AEP) promise to recruit more farmers into conservation schemes than ever before. The success of these voluntary schemes, which offer payments in return for farmers agreeing to desist from certain damaging operations or carry out environmentally sensitive ones, is widely proclaimed, chiefly with reference to the promising levels of enrolment that have already been achieved under the Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESA) programme. Increasingly, however, attention is focusing on the environmental benefits that are being achieved on the ground and their longer-term durability. This paper reports on a survey of 101 farmers in South East England conducted with a view to investigating the level of engagement of those currently enrolled in such schemes. Focusing on the motivational aspects, it points to wide variations in the level of commitment and sympathy with the wider objectives of AEP schemes and places farmers on a participation spectrum ranging from the most resistant non-adopters at one end to the most active adopters at the other. The policy implications of this categorisation are explored and recommendations made for pushing more farmers towards the active end of the spectrum.