Agri-environmental collaboratives for landscape management in Europe

Collaboration among farmers is increasingly recognised as beneficial for successful agri-environmental management. This paper reviews the recent literature on agri-environmental collaboration in Europe and compiles benefits, limitations and ways to encourage collaboration. Examples presented are situated along a spectrum from coordination to collaboration. While coordination seems to be easier and less costly to achieve than collaboration and may suffice for certain objectives, some benefits such as increasing social capital and the sustainable management of the wider landscape only occur with collaboration. Existing collaboratives have broader goals that may not neatly map onto objectives of agri-environment schemes. This inherent tension may be easier to address through regional or local schemes.