Agriculture is one of the most important factors in reducing biodiversity in the EU. However, the integration of nature conservation into the Common Agricultural Policy remains inadequate. The purpose of the doctoral dissertation is to study the planning, effects and evaluation of the Slovenian agricultural policy in the field of nature conservation. An analysis using BRT models showed a negative link between the diversity of farmland birds and direct payments, while environmental measures had a weak relative influence on bird diversity in the period 2008–2019. Bird diversity was highest in open landscapes on Natura 2000 sites that had a high diversity of agricultural plants and low stocking density. A programme theory analysis of the Slovenian agricultural policy showed numerous gaps in the definition of the intervention logic. Particularly lacking is a definition of objectives and indicators that would enable an assessment of the effectiveness of interventions. At the strategic level, the integration of nature conservation is limited mainly to voluntary measures. Strategies for preventing conflicts between nature conservation and other objectives of agricultural policy are mostly not defined. We estimated that in the 2014–2020 programming period, approximately 5 % (17.8–19.4 million EUR) of the annual budget of the Slovenian agricultural policy was allocated to nature conservation. The dissertation is concluded with an analysis of the possibilities for improving the result-orientation of agri-environmental measures, which was conducted with a discrete choice experiment (521 farmers in the Haloze and Karst area) and a qualitative thematic analysis of interviews with farmers, researchers, decision-makers and agricultural advisers. The farmers showed statistically significant higher preferences for result-based schemes than for schemes with prescribed practices and a preference for an individual approach to knowledge transfer. In order to successfully implement result-based schemes, it is necessary to improve data bases, research into sustainable production models and the training of staff in supervisory and advisory services.
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