Session A-3

Title:                             Integrated assessment of ecosystem services from agriculture

Session organisers:    Floor Brouwer (Agric. Economic Research Institute, Wageningen UR, the Netherlands), George Hutchinson (Queen's University Belfast, Northern Ireland)

Keynote speaker:        Allan Buckwell (CLA, London, United Kingdom)

Scope of the session: Besides producing food and fiber, agriculture creates joint benefits such as landscapes, biodiversity, cultural heritage and viable rural communities. Such non-food outputs confer a benefit or damage on people who themselves have not been involved in the decision leading to the benefit or damage. Non-commodity outputs from agriculture need to be supported by public policies when markets do not exist.

The session will explore the public goods and services provided by agriculture (e.g. environmental quality, water management, landscape features, adaptation to climate change, food security). It will identify policies promoting the provision of such ecosystem services, and the interrelations of agricultural systems with multifunctionality of land use are identified. It will also emphasize how agriculture can turn into a territorial perspective and strengthen its provision of ecosystem services. The session will identify and compare methodologies to assess social demand for goods and services. Examples are presented of the design and application of social cost-benefit analysis to support policy. Focus is on comparative work across different parts of the world.