ABSTRACT
The offering of income aids to disadvantaged or otherwise beleaguered groups of farmers who, in return, agree to make their farming practices more environmentally sensitive, is probably the most direct and powerful way in which a farm survival policy can be arranged to benefit conservation. Von Meyer (1985) has canvassed the idea of ‘direct environmental remuneration’ where farmers are paid by the state to produce CARE goods. Whitby and Harvey (1988) characterise this as a means whereby agriculture departments can purchase a part of a farmer’s right to property through a management agreement, in this case the ‘right’ to reclaim land or intensify production. One of the best practical illustrations of this concept is the Environmentally Sensitive Areas (ESA) programme, which was agreed by farm ministers as part of a package of socio-structural measures in 1987 (CEC 1985b).
