DUTCH APPROACH TO ABATING AGRICULTURAL NON-POINT POLLUTION: FARMERS' BEHAVIOUR AND THEIR MOTIVATION

摘要

In the Netherlands, agricultural activities are one of the major diffuse sources of nutrients and crop protectionrnchemicals. A national legal and regulatory framework has been developed to combat the environmental burdenrnfrom the agricultural industry. This resulted in the implementation of a government decree (AMvB) in the yearrn2000. Under pressure from NGOs, the Hollandse Eilanden en Waarden Water Board [ZHEW] worked on arnregional regulation in advance of this national legislation. ZHEW followed an approach of communication andrnpartnering prior to implementing the national decree.rnIn order to discover whether agricultural activities do exert an adverse influence on the quality of surface water,rna research programme was set up in 1995 in co-operation with the farmers. The research focused on therninfluence of the use of fertilizers and agrochemicals on the quality of surface waters. The farmers wererninformed, supported and motivated by, for example, information evenings, a monitoring programme, and advicernand consultation between the farmers and the authorities.rnIn the year 2000 the national Decree on Discharges from Arable and Dairy Farming entered into force. Thisrndecree is concerned with preventing and restricting pollution of surface water by the emission, in particular, ofrnpesticides and nutrients resulting from agricultural activities on open land and from dairy farming. Itrnincorporates a number of measures aimed at cutting drift, the ultimate goal being to cut drift by 90%.rnThe most important result of the chosen approach is that compliance with one of the most important measures,rnthe crop-free zone, is close to 100%. There has been little improvement in the amount of pesticides in the openrnwaters, but there is no clear link between the regulation and water quality. Both water board and farmers arernpositive about the approach followed, based on partnering and communication.rnMonitoring and evaluation proved to be essential when communicating with the agricultural sector. The resultsrnof attempts to influence behaviour must be recorded in order maintain the motivation to change behaviour.rnInformation on the effects of the approach adopted to combating diffuse agricultural sources is gathered from arnnumber of sources.