11 EFFECTS OF AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES ON THE ECOSYSTEM

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1 11 EFFECTS OF AGRICULTURAL ACTIVITIES ON THE ECOSYSTEM Mr Yukio Yokoi Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Paris April 2728, INTRODUCTION The aim of introducing the course topic on effects of agricultural activities on the ecosystem is to sensitise the participants on the qualitative and quantitative effects on the ecosystem and to discuss the measurement of these effects. To achieve this target the course was treated under the following main headings: The policy context and objective for developing agrienvironmental indicators; The conceptual framework for developing agrienvironmental indicators; and, Indicators to address agrienvironmental indicators AGRIENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS What is agriculture doing to the environment? And what impact do different policy measures have? These questions underlie work on developing agrienvironmental indicators (AEIs). The demand for information on agrienvironmental linkages largely reflects the high priority given by governments to environmental improvement. The supply of quantitative information of this sort, however, is currently inadequate. But without such information, governments and other stakeholders cannot identify the environmental risks and benefits associated with agriculture, which makes it difficult to improve the monitoring, assessment and targeting of agricultural and environmental programmes. Agrienvironmental indicators are intended to: Provide information to government policy makers and the public on the current state of the environment in agriculture, and changes to it; Help policymakers understand links between causes and effects and the impact of agricultural policies on the environment, and guide their responses to changes in environmental conditions; and, Contribute to monitoring and evaluating policy effectiveness in promoting sustainable agriculture FRAMEWORK FOR DEVELOPING AGRIENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS A major challenge is to provide a solid conceptual and methodological basis to support the empirical analysis of agrienvironmental linkages, especially in terms of quantifying the impact of agricultural policies and policy changes on the environment in agriculture. In order to better understand agrienvironmental linkages, and to identify and develop policy relevant indicators, particular consideration has been given to: Recognising specific characteristics of the linkages between agriculture and the environment; Statistics for Environment

2 Situating agriculture in the broader context of sustainable development, especially in terms of the relationships between the economic, social and environmental dimensions; and, Ensuring the framework to structure agrienvironmental analysis is largely consistent with that commonly being used in other related work in national administrations and elsewhere CHARACTERISTICS OF AGRICULTURE The specific characteristics of agriculture in relation to the environment that are of particular importance are as follow: Agricultural activities produce a diverse range of harmful and beneficial impacts on environmental quality. Farming can lead to deterioration in soil, water and air quality and the loss of habitats and biodiversity. But agricultural activity can contribute to environmental benefits such as acting as a sink for greenhouse gases, conserving and also enhancing biodiversity and landscape, and preventing flooding and landslides. The relationship between agricultural activities and the environment is frequently complex, site specific and nonlinear. Agricultural activities can have impacts on the environment which are determined by different agroecological systems and physical attributes of the land, the prevailing economic conditions and production technology, and farmers' management practices in relation to natural conditions. The agricultural sectors in most OECD countries, and many other nonoecd countries, are characterised by policies delivering high levels of support and government intervention. Farmer's behaviour can be significantly affected by these policies, in that they influence the level of agricultural production, its location, and the farming practices and management systems employed. Also changes in environmental quality can trigger market and societal reactions which may in turn influence agricultural and environmental policy decision. The situation of agriculture needs to be considered in the broader context of sustainable development. Human activities, such as agriculture and economic developments, and modifications to them in the form of plans, programmes; Capacity of natural systems, including agroecosystems, to absorb the effects of human activities on the environment; and, Environmental impacts, both harmful and beneficial, and the longterm sustainability of the ecosystem Agriculture in developing countries Particular attention should be paid to certain characteristics of agriculture in developing countries that may affect the environment. While situations vary from regions to region, these characteristics could be summarised as follows: In many cases, rapid increase of population is observed and could be a serious social problem, where traditional sustainable relationship between agriculture and environment may become unsustainable due to that too rapid change. The agricultural production system is often labour intensive, rather than input intensive. Environmental problems resulted from input use may be less important, but will become more serious when the system is in transition toward input intensive agriculture. Statistics for Environment

3 Infrastructure (land, water, transportation) is often not welldeveloped. Inefficiency in production or distribution could increase the negative effects on environment. Since agriculture takes relatively large share in labour population, and also basic needs for food is critical, the importance of production tends to be emphasised more than environmental concerns. Production is less subsidised than in developed countries, but food aid policy could affect the balance between agriculture and environment DRIVING FORCESTATERESPONSE FRAMEWORK (DSR) The Driving ForceStateResponse Framework is utilised to improve the understanding and help in organising what needs to be measured and to develop relevant indicators. The framework is most useful in developing the linkages, and it identifies the three main types of indicators: driving force indicators, addressing the issue of what is causing environmental conditions in agriculture to alter, such as, changes in the availability of farm financial resources and the use of nutrients, pesticides, land and water; state indicators, highlighting what are the effects of agriculture on the environment, such as covering impacts on soil, water, air, biodiversity, habitats and landscapes; response indicators, measuring what actions are being taken to respond to the changes in the state of the environment by farmers, policy makers and other stakeholders. Analysis of the linkages between driving forces, state and response is a key element in shedding light on the relationship between the causes and effects of agriculture's impact on the environment to better guide policy makers in their responses to changes in environmental conditions in agriculture. Significant further work needs to be undertaken on the linkages between indicators in the DSR framework, before causal relationships and feedback can be better understood and easily expressed for use by policymakers and other stakeholders Selection Criteria for Indicators There is a large number of indicators that could be developed to help quantify the various components and linkages in the DSR framework. To assist in the choice of an operational set of indicators within this framework each indicator is examined against four general criteria. The selected indicators should be: policyrelevant: addressing the key environmental issues faced by governments and other stakeholders in the agriculture sector; analytically sound: based on sound science, but recognising that their development involves successive stages of improvement; measurable: feasible in terms of current or planned data availability and cost effective in terms of data collection; and, easy to interpret: communicating essential information to policy makers and the wider public in a way that is unambiguous and easy to understand. Statistics for Environment

4 11.6 INDICATORS TO ADDRESS AGRIENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES OECD agrienvironmental indicators Indicators are being developed for the measurement of agrienvironmental issues identified by OECD countries, which can be grouped under four headings (Table 11.1): 1. Agriculture in the broader economic, social and environmental context; 2. Farm management and the environment; 3. Use of farm inputs and natural resources; and, 4. Environmental impacts of agriculture. Agri environmental indicators have been used as supporting information across a range of recent OECD studies and activities, as outlined below. Agricultural Policies in OECD Countries Monitoring and Evaluation Report, an annual report which includes information and data on the effects of agriculture on the environment. Agri environmental related policy studies, an irregular series of reports which examine different agrienvironmental related policy issues. Review of Agricultural Policies, are country policy reviews of nonmember OECD countries, such as the recent reviews of Romania and Slovenia, which have used the AEIs in the sections covering agrienvironmental issues. Environmental Performance Review country series examine the environmental performance of OECD countries and some nonoecd countries, including in certain reviews a special feature on agriculture drawing on the AEIs, for example, Denmark. Economic Working Papers, with special focus in some papers on sustainable development, including reference to agriculture. Agricultural and Environmental Outlook Reports, these include forecasting studies of agricultural trends, including recently a focus on greenhouse gases, and a forthcoming activity to provide an Environmental Outlook and Strategy to the year 2030, including a section on agriculture. Sustainable development, is a major horizontal activity for the OECD, examining the broader economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, including reference to issues related to sustainable agriculture, natural resources and indicators (see the OECD sustainable development website for further information: Statistics for Environment

5 Table List of OECD Agrienvironmental Indicators (Source: OECD Secretariat.) 1. AGRICULTURE IN THE BROADER ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEXT 1.1 Contextual Information and Indicators 1.2 Farm Financial Resources Agricultural GDP Land use Farm income Agricultural output Stock of agricultural land Agrienvironmental expenditure Farm employment Change in agricultural land Public and private agrienvironmental Agricultural land use expenditure Farmer age/gender distribution Expenditure on agrienvironmental research Farmer education Number of farms Agricultural support 2. FARM MANAGEMENT AND THE ENVIRONMENT Farm Management Whole farm management Nutrient management Soil and land management Environmental whole farm management plan Organic farming Nutrient management plans Soil tests Soil cover Land management practices Pest management Irrigation and water management Use of nonchemical pest control methods Irrigation technology Use of integrated pest management 3. USE OF FARM INPUTS AND NATURAL RESOURCES 3.1 Nutrient Use 3.2 Pesticide Use and Risks 3.3 Water Use Nitrogen balance Pesticide use Water use intensity 4. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF AGRICULTURE Pesticide risk Water use efficiency Water use technical efficiency 4.1 Soil Quality 4.3 Land Conservation (Soil and water retaining capacity) Water use economic efficiency Water stress 4.4 Greenhouse Gases Risk of soil erosion by water Water retaining capacity Gross agricultural greenhouse gas emissions Risk of soil erosion by wind Offfarm sediment flow (soil retaining capacity) 4.2 Water Quality Water quality risk indicator Water quality state indicator 4.5 Biodiversity 4.6 Wildlife Habitats 4.7 Landscape Genetic diversity Intensivelyfarmed agricultural habitats Physical appearance and structure of landscape Species diversity Wildlife species Nonnative species Seminatural agricultural habitats Physical elements, environmental features and land use patterns Manmade objects (cultural features) Landscape typologies Uncultivated natural and manmade habitats Habitat matrix Ecosystem diversity Landscape management (see Wildlife Habitats) Landscape costs and benefits (values) Statistics for Environment

6 Development of other agrienvironmental indicators in national and international contexts A growing number of national initiatives are seeking to assess the environmental performance of agriculture, the information for which are available at the following websites: Australian Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) Agriculture and AgriFood Canada: French Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries: United States Economic Research Services (USDA/ERS): United Kingdom Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions: Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food: Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry: Statistics Norway: Swiss Agency for the Environment, Forests and Landscape: At the regional level, various European institutions are involved in the process of establishing agrienvironmental indicators. Most importantly is the recent request from the European Union Council Summit meeting in Helsinki, December 1999, to establish indicators for the integration of environmental concerns into the Common Agricultural Policy. An initial response to this request has been a joint Report by the European Commission and EUROSTAT to provide statistical information on agriculture, environment and rural development. The European Environment Agency is involved with developing indicators, which include an agricultural focus. Under the auspices of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Commission for Environmental Cooperation is developing an analytical framework to address environmental concerns, including issues related to agriculture. Major components of the framework are indicators for assessing how NAFTAassociated processes generate environmental pressures and responses that affect air, water, land and biodiversity. Australia and New Zealand also have a collaborative effort to oversee the process of defining, promoting and monitoring progress toward sustainable agriculture. Concerning international governmental organisations, environmental indicators are being developed by the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), as a followup to the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) Rio Declaration and Agenda 21. Included in this work is the development of a set of indicators related to Statistics for Environment

7 sustainable agriculture and rural development (SARD) under the guidance of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) The FAO s intergovernmental Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture is also establishing a monitoring system to track the state of the world s plant and animal genetic resources. The FAO activity is linked with the broader concerns of the Secretariat to the Convention on Biological Diversity, and their development of biodiversity indicators including agrobiodiversity indicators. The World Bank is actively engaged in developing environmental indicators, some of which are relevant to agriculture. In addition, a considerable number of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) are also involved in developing environmental indicators, both at the national and international level, which in some cases focus on agrienvironmental issues. These include recent works by the World Watch Institute, the World Resources Institute and the World Wide Fund for Nature CONCLUSION The future of OECD agrienvironmental indicator work will be highlighted as follows: Improve the conceptual and analytical understanding of the links between agriculture and the environment in specific areas to help identify which policy relevant indicators might be developed and how they should be measured, in particular for example biodiversity, habitats, landscape, farm financial resources and sociocultural aspects of agrienvironmental linkages. In these areas the links between agriculture and environmental impacts need further refinement and relevant indicators identified. Identify policy relevant indicators and methods of measurement for those agrienvironmental issue areas, where the conceptual basis is advanced but for which indicators and methods of measurement are not yet established, such as pesticide use, soil and water quality. Collect, systematically, basic agrienvironmental data and begin the calculation of indicators where methods of measurement are established. In this regard, work is already underway on calculating indicators and collecting basic data related to, for example, nutrient use and greenhouse gases. Examine how the driving forcestateresponse (DSR) framework and related indicators can be used as analytical tools to better understand agrienvironmental relationships in policy analysis and to evaluate the impact of policies on the environment in agriculture PowerPoint Skills Mr Yukio Yokoi, in one of the exercises, introduced the use of power point to the participants as a means of disseminating information. This was most useful to the participants who did not know how to use powerpoint presentation software Statistics for Environment