Greening the common agricultural policy: past experiences and future challenges toward multifunctional agriculture

Oliveira De Aguiar, Rayane

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/88042 Copy

Description

Title

Greening the common agricultural policy: past experiences and future challenges toward multifunctional agriculture

Author(s)

Oliveira De Aguiar, Rayane

Issue Date

2015-07-14

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Endres, Jody M

Department of Study

Liberal Arts & Sciences

Discipline

European Union Studies

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

M.A.

Degree Level

Thesis

Keyword(s)

• Common Agricultural Policy
• Multifunctionality

Abstract

Over the past decade, scientific and policy circles throughout Europe have been debating about how to best create working landscapes that balance agricultural production and environmental conservation in an economically sustainable fashion. In this regard, multi-functional landscape strategies have been perceived as a powerful instrument to help the European Union achieve its sustainable development goals. In an attempt to put these ideas in place, past reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and more recently the CAP post-2013 reform, contain a set of environmental standards and objectives that aim to improve overall environmental sustainability of European farms. This study examines the current CAP environmental standards both from conservationist and rural development perspectives, seeking to identify whether such measures can most successfully foster the concept of multi-functionality. Through an analysis of the legislative history of the CAP reform process, as well as a review of the literature on the conceptual frameworks to multifunctional agriculture, and particularly exploring the role of institutions in driving environmentally sustainable farming systems across the EU, the research findings suggest that environmental objectives have only been partially integrated into the CAP, either because of their limited scope or their unsuccessful implementation. At the policy level, these findings question the effectiveness of EU policy efforts to use CAP subsidies as an instrument to deliver environmental goals and contribute to the multiple functions of agriculture. CAP environmental objectives have to a considerable degree remained fragmented, which reinforces the need to promote more integrative policy approaches as a way to explore the potentials of multifunctional agriculture in all its complexity, and to achieve broader sustainability and rural development goals.

Graduation Semester

2015-8

Type of Resource

text

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http://hdl.handle.net/2142/88042

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2015 Rayane Oliveira De Aguiar

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