In order to integrate ecosystem services (ES) in designing agri-environmental policy, we investigated both the demand for, and supply of, ES from agricultural environments in Finland. Using the discrete choice experiment method, we measured citizens’ willingness to pay (WTP) for four different ES and analysed farmers’ compensation request (willingness to accept [WTA]) for producing these services. Biodiversity and water quality gathered the highest WTA of farmers, but also the highest WTP of citizens. Overall, the average WTA exceeded the WTP for almost all attributes and levels, but 20–27 per cent of farmers were willing to produce the ES with the compensation lower than citizens’ WTP.

Biodiversity degradation is a national and global problem which is interconnected with land use and climate change. All these are major unsolved questions and their interactions are only partly understood. Agriculture and especially cattle farming is under keen societal focus because of its significant role in soil carbon losses, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and biodiversity preservation. We reviewed the Finnish scientific literature to assess the impact of intensive contra extensive grass production on biodiversity using vascular plants, vertebrates, invertebrates and soil biota. Still a few decades ago, mixed farming was prevailing almost everywhere in Finland, but nowadays cereal production is essentially clustered in the southwest and milk and beef production in the northeast. This is reflected in the distribution of intensive (connected with cattle) and extensive grasslands (both types of farming). The bird community was most abundant and species rich in farmland which provides small fields in large blocks of farmland and many kinds of crops, including both intensive and extensive grasslands. Overall permanent grasslands with rather simply vegetation diversity can maintain a diverse community of spiders and leafhoppers, and act as overwintering habitat for polyphagous predators in field ecosystems. The ecological requirement of all species and species groups are probably never met at one site and consequently target should be in having differently managed areas at regional scale. For some of the taxa, ecosystem services could be indicated, but a research-based quantitative assessment is available only for carbon sequestration and weak impact of dung-beetles in diminishing GHG emissions from cow pats. Our review demonstrated that quite much is known about biodiversity in extensively managed grasslands, but very little in intensively managed grasslands. An important question is whether there is some threshold for the proportion of grasslands under which regional biodiversity will be reduced. Intensive production offers limited value to replace the high biodiversity value of semi-natural pastures.

The European Union has decided to reform its agricultural policy and decouple Common Agricultural Policy support partially from production. The aim of this study is to predict the diversity effects of agricultural policy reforms in which direct aid payments are disconnected from production, and compare the outcomes with the effects of a policy in which Common Agricultural Policy support is coupled to production. The study employs a dynamic regional sector model of Finnish agriculture. The sector model predicts regional agricultural land use, numbers of livestock, stocking densities, pesticide application areas, and nutrient balances. Diversity of agricultural land use is measured by Shannon’s diversity index. The results indicate that if agricultural support is independent from production, the amount of fallow land will increase considerably in the future. This will decrease the diversity of agricultural land use at landscape level, but may not be harmful at species level since green fallow has some positive effects, especially on the densities and abundance of farmland birds. Instead, the decrease in bovine animals is likely to run down biological diversity, since it simplifies crop rotation and diminishes grazing.; Euroopan unioni uudistaa yhteistä maatalouspolitiikkaansa.Valtaosa EU:n kokonaan rahoittamista maataloustuista irrotetaan tuotannosta ja maksetaan viljelijöille tulotukena. Tutkimuksessa ennustettiin maatalouden sektorimallin avulla kuinka CAP-tukien irrottaminen tuotannosta vaikuttaa maatalousmaan käyttöön, tuotannon intensiteettiin sekä maiseman ja lajien monimuotoisuuteen Suomessa. Tarkasteltavia skenaarioita oli kaksi: yhteisen maatalouspolitiikan uudistusehdotusten mukainen skenaario ja vapaakauppaskenaario. Politiikkavaihtoehtojen tuloksena saatuja ennusteita maatalousmaan käytöstä, maiseman monimuotoisuudesta, torjunta-aineilla käsitellystä peltoalasta, eläintiheyksistä ja ravinnetaseista vuonna 2015 verrattiin perusskenaarion ennusteisiin vastaavana ajankohtana. Perusskenaariossa oletettiin, että myös tulevaisuudessa jatketaan Agenda 2000:n mukaista politiikkaa, jossa CAP-tuet on sidottu tuotantoon. Yhteisen maatalouspolitiikan uudistusehdotusten mukainen CAP-tukien irrottaminen tuotannosta vähentää viljelymaiseman monimuotoisuutta useilla alueilla Suomessa ja johtaa lähes neljä kertaa suurempaan viherkesantojen pinta-alaan vuonna 2015 kuin Agenda 2000:n mukainen politiikka. Vapaakauppaskenaarion seurauksena pellonkäyttö muuttuu samansuuntaisesti, mutta voimakkaammin kuin CAP-uudistuksen perusteella. Maankäytön muutoksesta johtuvat vaikutukset maatalousluonnon monimuotoisuuteen eivät kuitenkaan todennäköisesti ole kokonaisuudessaan haitallisia, sillä viherkesantojen on todettu vaikuttavan myönteisesti etenkin peltolinnustoon. Sen sijaan kotieläintuotannon muutokset vaikuttavat todennäköisesti haitallisesti luonnon monimuotoisuuteen, sillä erityisesti nautakarjan määrä vähenee, mikäli viljelijän tuotantopäätös ei vaikuta tuen suuruuteen. Tällöin ravinneylijäämät pienenevät, mutta samalla karjasta luopuneiden tilojen viljelykierto yksipuolistuu, ja laiduntamisen hyödyt luonnon monimuotoisuudelle vähentyvät.

Ecosystem-based agricultural practices that utilize ecosystem processes aim to either reduce the negative externalities of agricultural production or increase the production of ecosystem services other than food provision. We examined consumer interest in buying and paying for food produced using ecosystem-based agricultural practices. According to the results, the most preferred practices were the more efficient use of livestock manure, the use of nitrogen-fixing crops, biological pest control, and the addition of soil carbon. Having these practices as an attribute of a food product increased the interest in buying the product for 43% of consumers. Their median willingness to pay (WTP) was 20% higher than for conventional products. Using socioeconomic and attitudinal variables, a hurdle model revealed the characteristics of a consumer segment interested in ecosystem-based agricultural practices.