Innovations in Nonpoint Source Pollution Policy—European Perspectives

Abstract

Agriculture is an important source of nutrient loading— nitrogen and phosphorus—into surface and groundwater in Europe. Phosphorus is the most common cause of eutrophication in fresh waters, such as rivers and lakes, while nitrogen loading promotes eutrophication of coastal waters. Several valuation studies show that Europeans value clean water and agricultural landscapes, which often exhibit high historical and cultural values as well as biodiversity. Traditional emphasis of the European agri-environmental policies has been on landscapes and biodiversity. Over time the role of agriculture in water pollution has been recognized. Indeed, agriculture contributes generally 50-80% of the total nitrogen and phosphorus loading to Europe’s fresh waters. The same holds true for sea waters. For example, in the Baltic Sea catchment area, nonpoint source loading represents 71% of nitrogen and 44 % of phosphorus loads. No wonder the need to develop policies to reduce nonpoint source nutrient loads has emerged. By the gradual increase of the number of its member states, the European Union (EU) has become the key European player in environmental and agricultural policies targeting nutrient loads from point and nonpoint sources. The key means of the EU environmental policies are the legally binding environmental directives, such as the Water Framework Directive, Marine Strategy Directive, Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive, and Nitrates Directive. Member states are required to implement the directives within their jurisdiction and choose the most appropriate means to do so. Furthermore, member states are allowed to impose stricter policies than directives require if they want to do so. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) provides the basis for agricultural nonpoint source policies. CAP consists of partly decoupled farm income support with environmental conditionality, so called environmental crosscompliance, and voluntary agri-environmental policies in member states. While in most member states voluntary agri-environmental policies focus more on biodiversity and landscapes, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden have developed ambitious voluntary nonpoint source policies. Agri-environmental policies in the EU and the United States differ in some respects. While agri-environmental policy in the EU primarily addresses positive environmental externalities, such as landscape features and biodiversity, the emphasis in the United States is more on the reduction of negative externalities. As regards policies targeting negative environmental effects, the EU focuses more on negative environmental effects brought on by intensifica tion of farm input use—fertilizer, manure, and pesticide— whereas extensification-related effects—cultivation of ero sion-prone and other environmentally sensitive land— are addressed in the United States. Third, agri-environmental payments in the United States are mostly targeted towards environmental performance, such as those based on the environmental benefit index. However, in the EU, they are based on the adoption of environmentally friendly cultivation practices (Baylis et al., 2008). Finally, there are also differences as regards environmental regulatory approaches between these two regions. Keeping the key role of the EU in mind, we review both past experience and current policy initiatives for nonpoint source pollution. We start with the features of the CAP.