PAYMENT FOR SOFT VALUES

Proposal for modernisation of the EU Rural District Programme

Danish Forest Association

June 2004

1. Objective

The EU Rural District Programme should be modernised so as to enable agriculture and

forestry to meet society’s increasing demand for soft quality-of-life values such as:
• Access to the nature
• Outdoor life
• A clean environment
• Preservation of cultural heritage

Achievement of these objectives would also have positive effects in the form of greater
interest in moving to rural areas and increased employment in those areas (as well as in
nature preservation and in traditional crafts).

2. Method: Funding via market mechanisms

The modernisation should be based on a scheme which gives landowners incentives to

preserve and develop soft quality-of-life values.

This scheme should meet the following requirements:

• clear, concise objectives formulated by public sector authorities;
• clear, concise rules concerning the priority of the projects;
• respect for private ownership;
• the initiative to enter into agreements must lie with the individual landowners – possibly
as a response to wishes expressed by public authorities, which is important because
society will thus have active partners who can ensure that special local knowledge is
incorporated into projects and that projects can be implemented at lower cost than
compulsory measures against which there is local opposition;
• possibility of preparing comprehensive overall plans for a single property or a group of
properties;
• unbureaucratic procedures and working methods;
• possibility of involving regional as well as national authorities as consultants in
connection with the preparation of plans;
• supervision;
• ongoing evaluation of the scheme;
• it should not be part of the rural district scheme that public authorities can introduce
legislation, for example in the form of preservation or protection orders, to achieve a
specific type of natural environment.

Payment

Payment to landowners for soft values will not be subsidies but is simply payment for a
commodity on ordinary market conditions. This is a relatively new type of payment for
nature, culture, environment and outdoor values. It has several obvious advantages:

• society achieves maximum value for the funds spent

• landowners become active players in projects

Market mechanisms will mean that society will sometimes pay in excess of the financial
loss suffered by the landowners as a result of the realisation of a project and sometimes
less (typically when the owner has a personal interest in the realisation of the project).

Agreement periods

Several of the elements proposed (see the list below) should be paid as a lump sum once
and for all, for example measures relating to the preservation of buildings with special
cultural values or establishment of permanent untouched forest.

In the case of other elements it would be appropriate to define the duration of the term of
the agreement (from a few years up to, say, 20 years), some reasons being:
• It may be difficult to persuade landowners to agree to measures that will be binding on
future generations/owners. Consequently the size of the financial incentives needed to
carry out everlasting measures may become prohibitive.
• Agreements covering very long periods of time may imply many risks for owners since
basic conditions may change during the term of an agreement, making it impossible to
carry out projects as originally planned. In such cases it should be possible to revise or
terminate the agreement.
• It cannot with any certainty be said that all the measures taken will have the desired
result.

Funding

The funds for the projects desired will to a great extent be provided through revised
prioritisation in national budgets and the EU budget. However, additional funds must be
provided as and when society’s focus on soft, quality-of-life values grows.

It should be possible to fund only voluntary agreements through the Rural District
Programme. Compulsory measures, e.g. protection, should exclusively be funded by
national funds in accordance with national legislation.

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If this distinction is not maintained, agriculture will have to pay for the compulsory
measures itself because of new prioritisation in budgets. As a result the entire basis for the
programme will disappear, i.e. voluntary participation and local commitment.

3. Target areas

The following list of possible target areas to be covered in a modernised Rural District
Programme supplements and amplifies current programmes. However, it is necessary to
reassess the fixing of prices.

3.1. General

• Agreements concerning overall plan for one or more properties. Plans must form the
basis for payment of individual elements. Partnerships between local NGO branches
and agriculture.
• Safeguarding and preservation of key biotopes
• Management of endangered species
• Establishment of areas where hunting/shooting is not permitted
• No new ditches and drainage systems
• No dredging of ditches
• Filling of existing ditches
• Safeguarding and preservation of special types of nature areas, e.g. moors, commons,
dunes, salt meadows, lakes, lake shores, bogs, marches, water streams, springs,
founts, hedges, banks, reed forests, windbreaking, thickets, hillsides, beaches and
islands
• Facilities and initiatives supporting alternative production, e.g. truffles and fungi

3.2. Cultural environment

• Ensuring a certain building style

• Maintenance and restoration of buildings that are characteristic of the locality or have
characteristic building features
• New use of redundant buildings, including the establishment of commercial enterprises,
housing facilities, etc
• Safeguarding of landscapes
• Redesign and maintenance of parks and gardens
• Support for the establishment of tree-lined roads and the use of other types of plants
emphasising cultural heritage
• Support for recreational installations near buildings of cultural interest

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3.3. Forests

• Coppice forest
• Grazing forest
• Woodland meadow
• No soil preparation
• No removal of tree stumps
• No clear-cutting
• No forest burning
• No cutting in the breeding season
• No use of exotic species
• Use of own gene pool (local origin)
• Preservation of local gene pool
• Primary forests (and other agricultural areas)
• Planting of broadleaf trees
• Establishment of robust (= storm resistant) forests
• Agreed distribution of tree species

3.4. Outdoor life

• Extended access through payment schemes, for example for special activities or
groups
• Installation of gates and stiles as well as other measures increasing the general
public’s access to the natural environment
• Maintenance of paths ensuring a better standard than that required for commercial use.
• Establishment of facilities for schools, kindergartens, etc
• Establishment of facilities for intensive recreational use, e.g. mountain bike tracks and
fenced-in forests where dogs can be walked off lead

3.5. Environment

• Non-use of fertilisers, pesticides and calcium oxide

• Protective measures such as non-use of sludge, process water, etc
• Supplementary incentives for set-aside in excess of requirements