Agri-environmental policy design and farmers' decision-making regarding high nature value landscape feature conservation and restoration : doctoral dissertation

Alif, Živa (author), Šumrada, Tanja (mentor)

This doctoral dissertation examines the challenges of conserving and restoring landscape features in intensive agricultural areas of Slovenia and explores opportunities for their more effective integration into agricultural policy. It focuses on fallow land, extensive meadows, and small woody features as three landscape features that make important contributions to biodiversity conservation and the provision of ecosystem services. The results of qualitative thematic analysis of interviews and quantitative analysis using Boosted Regression Trees (BRT) show that agricultural intensification is the primary driver of their decline, while social norms, institutional frameworks, and economic factors also play important roles. The analysis of farmers’ preferences with a discrete choice experiment revealed substantial heterogeneity, indicating that universal policy measures are not cost-effective. Policy simulations suggest that the target of 10% landscape features at a landscape level could be achieved more cost-effectively by targeting incentives towards farmers with a higher willingness to participate and by increasing the flexibility of schemes to better match farmers’ preferences, although this may create trade-offs with ecological effectiveness. Randomized controlled trials showed that simple behavioural interventions, or nudges, embedded in information campaigns did not significantly increase farmers’ participation in environmental schemes. The dissertation therefore concludes that effective biodiversity conservation requires more targeted, locally adapted, and integrated approaches that account for the diversity of farms and farmers.

• Language: English
• Keywords: agriculture, agricultural policy, landscape features, nature conservation, Slovenia
• Work type: Doctoral dissertation
• Typology: 2.08 - Doctoral Dissertation
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Place of publishing: Ljubljana
• Publisher: Ž. Alif
• Year: 2026
• Number of pages: 1 spletni vir (1 datoteka PDF (X, 161, [15] str.))
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-190577
• UDC: 631:502(043.3)=111
• COBISS.SI-ID: 303199747
• Publication date in RUL: 30.10.2026

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Title: Načrtovanje ukrepov kmetijsko-okoljske politike in odločanje kmetov glede ohranjanja in obnove krajinskih značilnosti visoke naravne vrednosti : doktorska disertacija

Abstract

Doktorska disertacija obravnava izzive ohranjanja in obnove krajinskih značilnosti v intenzivnih kmetijskih območjih Slovenije ter možnosti njihove učinkovitejše vključitve v kmetijsko politiko. Osredotoča se na praho, ekstenzivne travnike in majhne lesne elemente kot tri tipe krajinske značilnosti, ki pomembno prispevajo k ohranjanju biotske pestrosti in zagotavljanju ekosistemskih storitev. Rezultati kvalitativne tematske analize intervjujev in kvantitativne analize z metodo BRT (angl. Boosted regression trees) kažejo, da je glavni razlog za njihovo izgubljanje intenzifikacija kmetijstva, pomembno vlogo pa imajo tudi družbene norme, institucionalni okvirji in ekonomski dejavniki. Analiza preferenc kmetov s poskusom diskretne izbire je pokazala visoko heterogenost, zaradi katere univerzalni ukrepi niso stroškovno učinkoviti. Simulacije politik kažejo, da bi bilo mogoče cilj 10-odstotnega deleža krajinskih značilnosti doseči bolj stroškovno učinkovito z usmerjanjem spodbud na kmete z večjo pripravljenostjo za sodelovanje ter z večjo prilagodljivostjo shem preferencam kmetov, kar pa je lahko v konfliktu z ekološko učinkovitostjo. Naključni nadzorovani poskusi so pokazali, da preprosti vedenjski ukrepi oziroma dregljaji v informacijskih kampanjah niso bistveno povečali vključevanja kmetov v okoljske sheme. Disertacija zato zaključuje, da so za učinkovito varstvo biotske pestrosti potrebni bolj ciljno usmerjeni, lokalno prilagojeni in celostni pristopi, ki upoštevajo raznolikost kmetij in kmetov.

• Keywords: kmetijstvo, kmetijska politika, krajinske značilnosti, varstvo narave, Slovenija, doktorske disertacije