Results-based agri-environmental scheme design: Legal implications

Results-based agri-environmental schemes look set over the years ahead to form core components of agricultural policy both within the European Union and the United Kingdom. Their level of ambition, however, raises specific legal issues, four of which will be explored: first, the governance dimension when ‘setting the bar’ for the unlocking of payment; secondly, potential regulatory and contractual responses where there is a failure to meet the mandated outcome; thirdly, challenges for tenants who enjoy insufficient security of tenure to achieve long-term objectives and/or who are subject to clauses in their agreements or statutory provisions which have the effect of restricting the use of the land to ‘agriculture’ as traditionally understood; and, fourthly, compatibility with World Trade Organization rules. While results-based agri-environmental schemes may be more complex to translate into practice than those based upon prescribed actions, there is scope for the law in both its regulatory and contractual forms to be enlisted as a powerful ally in their realisation.