Improving Agri-environmental Schemes: Suggestions from Farmers and Nature Managers in a Central European Region

Agri-environmental schemes (AES) are important policy instruments within the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union for environmental protection. Due to the voluntary nature of AES, their attractiveness to farmers and stakeholders involved in nature management and protection (nature managers) is essential for high participation levels. This study aims to assess farmers' and nature managers' ideas to improve agri-environmental schemes. We analyzed suggestions of 825 farmers and 118 nature managers for improvements of AES collected in a large-scale survey in Bavaria, Germany. A content analysis was applied to categorize and compare suggestions by farmers (differentiated into two groups through a cluster analysis) and nature managers. The results reveal that stakeholders were highly willing to share ideas and made detailed suggestions for improvements and individual measures. They were aware of the importance of protecting nature and promoting biodiversity in agricultural landscapes and acknowledged the necessity of (financial) support programs. Farmers placed more emphasis on the practicability and profitability of measures on arable land, while nature managers tended to propose policy-related ideas focusing on nature protection, biodiversity, and specific species. Among farmers, suggestions differed with farm characteristics such as the operation mode (full-time, part-time). These findings can support the design of future AES, accounting for different background situations and thereby increasing acceptability. This includes considering perspectives from different stakeholder groups and creating regionally adapted programs with varying levels of flexibility and practicability.