Farming Practices and Experienced Policy Coherence in Agri-environmental Policies: The Case of Land Clearing in Finland

摘要

Environmental problems related to agricultural land use require better functioning solutions. Pressing problems include the increasing nutrient load in water bodies, caused by fertilization and erosion, and carbon emissions caused by various agricultural practices, for example. At a policy level, these issues are tackled via agri-environmental measures, but at farm level, these measures have not attracted as wide support as hoped for. Instead, farmers feel that many agri-environmental measures are incoherent in relation to their practices and goals, and the goals of agricultural policies in general. This type of policy problem can be called experienced policy coherence and it results in poor functioning of the policies. This paper connects practice theory and policy coherence analysis and suggests that a more systematic focus on the practices which the policies aim at influencing is needed in order to design better policies and to approach the problem of policy incoherence experienced by grass-roots actors. The empirical focus is on clearing new arable land and climate emissions in the context of Finnish agriculture. The results show that the different elements of practices identified in practice studies can pinpoint the key issues causing experienced policy incoherence and malfunctioning of policies.