Protecting ecosystem services of urban agriculture against land-use change using market-based instruments. A Polish perspective

Abstract

Urban agriculture is the collective name for a wide variety of farming activities that occur within a city’s boundaries or direct sphere of influence. A shared feature of urban agriculture types is that they are spatially limited,. Farming is generally not the primary function in the urban ecosystem; however, its spatial role should not be underestimated. Urban green spaces connected with urban agriculture are widely accepted as a nature-based solution for effectively addressing societal challenges related to urbanization. Competition for land between agricultural and urban land use is addressed mostly by regulatory command-and-control planning approaches. However, there is growing interest in the use of market-based instruments. Agricultural subsidies and legal protection against agricultural land conversion are primarily oriented towards rural areas, so the research regarding market-based instruments for agricultural land uses in cities is undeveloped. In Polish cities, urban agricultural areas comprise about 43.5 % of total urban area, and 7.8 % of individual farms in Poland are urban farms. The specific attitude towards ownership of land in Poland (a strong private-property ideology) influences (restricts) the implementation of market-based instruments. The article aims to present the potential for market-based instruments for urban agriculture and to identify barriers to the implementation of such solutions. The paper analyzes theoretical frameworks and practices for protecting agricultural land use through market-based instruments in Poland. We focus on two types of market-based instruments for ecosystem services of urban agriculture. The first encompasses the existing tools in Polish law and policy. We identified the following market-based instruments protecting urban agriculture: (1) charges and annual fees for excluding land from agricultural production, aimed at preventing agricultural land conversion in cities; and (2) land leasing charge of allotment gardens. We assess those instruments, their strengths and weaknesses and their effectiveness in protecting agricultural land use in cities. The second type are market-based instruments supporting urban agriculture cities that have potential for future implementation, We consider voluntary land readjustment and development agreement (currently very limited) to be the most promising and implementable. In this regard, we formulate de lege ferenda conclusions and recommendations.