Communicating Rural Development
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Highlight: Seminar Highlights Links Between Public Goods and Agriculture
On December 10, 2010, a seminar on “Public goods and Public Intervention in Agriculture” took place in Brussels, in the presence of a wide range of stakeholders at European level. The seminar, organised by the ENRD and chaired by DG AGRI, came at the conclusion of the work of the ENRD Thematic Working Group 3 (TWG3) on “Public goods and public intervention”, whose activities were launched in early 2009.
The main objective of the event was to present the outcomes of the work of TWG3 to a larger group of stakeholders, and to clarify the concept of public goods to a wider audience. In the presence of the Managing Authorities of the Rural Development Programmes (RDPs), NRNs, National Ministries of Environment, NGOs and European organisations, as well as experts active in TWGs, the seminar sought to demonstrate that the conceptual framework of public goods in agriculture can provide a common ground for discussions, on the CAP and rural development policy generally.
Role of agriculture in public goods
An opening presentation by David Baldock, from the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP), introduced the concept of public goods and the role of agriculture in their provision. Examples of this such as agricultural landscapes, farmland biodiversity, water quality and carbon storage – as well as the multi-faceted processes through which this can be realised - were presented. Based on the work of the ENRD’s TWG2 on ‘Agriculture and the wider rural economy’, linkages between agriculture, public goods and the wider rural economy were described.
Practical examples of EAFRD funded initiatives were illustrated, which showed that even when interventions are focused on the generation of economic benefits, environmental and social public goods can be generated. Initiatives aimed at promoting a healthy and attractive environment were also shown to help generate economic benefits and – more widely – ‘rural vitality’. The insights provided by the interventions were acknowledged as “food for thought” for panelists and the wider audience, who engaged in an open debate on policy implications, and the links between public goods and agriculture. The proceedings of the seminar are available here.
