Incentive policies and the rural environment: Fid-Bau Portal

Incentive policies and the rural environment

Hodge, Ian

Abstract There is increasing interest in the potential for environmental policies which operate by means of creating incentives for environmental improvement, rather than being based on government regulations alone. A range of options has been discussed in the literature and a few approaches have been adopted. These include taxes and subsidies, permits and quotas, environmental contracts, legal liability, and collective interests in land ownership. The paper examines these approaches and considers their potential for application in the rural context. There are no simple or single solutions to the problems of managing the rural environment; different approaches are applicable in different circumstances. It is difficult to identify opportunities for the application of generalised environmental taxes or subsidies or for the implementation of a standardised system of permits or quotas, but opportunities for the creation of incentives in more specific or focused ways are available. Where this is possible, the creation of incentives to individual land-holders can give them encouragement to seek out the most advantageous means of achieving what the wider public demands.