Soil conservation in transition countries – the role of institutions

Katrin Prager, Jaroslav Prazan, Ivan Penov (International Society for Ecological Economics Conference, Bremen/Oldenburg, Germany, 22-25 August 2010)

Abstract

Soils carry many functions and provide ecosystem services. The majority of land in countries of the European Union (EU) is under agricultural use. Although soils have been used agriculturally in Europe for many centuries, recent data shows that soil status is deteriorating. For the protection of soil as a non-renewable resource it is therefore pivotal to consider the influence of agricultural practices and land management on soil quality and its functions. Against this background, policies for soil protection in general and agricultural soil conservation in particular were established at European and national levels. The question is whether the formal existence of these policies is sufficient to protect soils or which role regional and local implementation plays for the policies’ effectiveness.

This paper considers a range of mandatory and voluntary incentive-based policies that target agricultural soil degradation in three European countries. Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and (Eastern) Germany adhere to the common policy framework of the EU and all three have a national soil protection law. Nevertheless, policy implementation and uptake by stakeholders differs considerably. The selected countries also share the characteristics of transition countries where land reforms are at different stages and have evolved in different ways. Eastern Germany entered the EU in 1990, the Czech Republic in 2004 and Bulgaria in 2007. This provides the unique opportunity to assess policy and policy implementation at different stages of “Europeanisation”.

Our comparative case study is based on a framework of institutional analysis. We used literature survey, document analysis (legislation and policies in the selected countries), and in-depth stakeholder interviews with farmers, administrators, and civil society stakeholders to analyse the impact of institutional arrangements (i.e. formal and informal institutions, and governance structures).

Results show that among the determining factors for policy effectiveness are property rights regimes and land use rights, traditions in the provision of advisory services, farmers’ previous experience with soil conservation practices and policies, attitudes towards soil conservation, perceived threat of enforcement, and trust in administrative authorities. We conclude that the existence of similar legislation and a common policy framework does not guarantee similar outcomes because institutional arrangements and their evolution play a major role in the effectiveness of agricultural soil conservation policies.

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