20.500.12556/RUL-181370 Eliciting 10% of semi-natural habitats on farmland for biodiversity recommendations for cost-effective policy The EU has set an objective of reaching 10% of landscape features on its agricultural land by 2030 as part of its latest Biodiversity Strategy. This share is often considered the minimum amount of semi-natural habitats required to halt biodiversity declines and ensure the provision of ecosystem services. This policy objective has faced considerable political opposition due to potentially high budgetary and opportunity costs. We explore farmers' preferences towards hypothetical incentive schemes that ensure the provision of 10% of semi-natural habitats at the landscape level. We use the results of a discrete choice experiment to estimate the total budgetary costs of different schemes and potential strategies to reduce these costs. Finally, we examine regional patterns of farmers' enrolment under various policy scenarios. We find that farmers, on average, demand 21 €, 33 € and 29 € per ha of the entire farm to provide 1% of extensive meadows, woody landscape features and fallow land, respectively. While the total cost of reaching the 10% semi-natural habitat goal at the landscape level drastically exceeds the currently available budget when all farmers contribute equally, the costs can be considerably reduced if an auction-like mechanism is used. Our results show that to reach 10% of semi-natural habitats cost-effectively, careful policy design is required in terms of scheme flexibility and farm-level contributions that are aligned with local conservation targets and the desired scale of implementation. agri-environmental schemes semi-natural habitats common agricultural policy discrete choice experiment cost-effectiveness biodiversity conservation Slovenia kmetijstvo varstvo narave polnaravni habitati biotska pestrost ohranjanje kmetje stališča Slovenija true false true Angleški jezik Slovenski jezik Članek v reviji 2026-04-03 08:54:57 2026-04-03 08:55:03 2026-04-04 04:47:26 0000-00-00 00:00:00 2026 0 0 13 str. [article no.] 109024 Vol. 247 Sep. 2026 0000-00-00 Zaloznikova Objavljeno NiDoloceno 0000-00-00 0000-00-00 2026-04-02 631:502 1873-6106 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2026.109024 274110211 RAZ_Alif_Ziva_2026.pdf RAZ_Alif_Ziva_2026.pdf 1 356601A48D119DCC9F9283EF37F7A408 0c33c12af2ad338c5fd64587fbee01733942b963f86b9457dd28f1f4b845443a e8596f7f-2f29-11f1-b0ab-0050569b8976 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=231767 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921800926001096 1 e064e57e-2f29-11f1-b0ab-0050569b8976 https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/Dokument.php?lang=slv&id=231766 Biotehniška fakulteta 0 0 0