Reconciling agricultural economic and environmental objectives: the case of recreating wetlands in the Fenland area of eastern England

Although assistance to farming remains the dominant method for supporting the rural sector in the UK, there has been a shift in policy towards agri-environmental schemes which attempt to reconcile competing demands on the countryside as a simultaneous provider of food, rural livelihoods and environmental goods and services. Many of these issues and challenges facing UK and European agriculture are evident in the intensively farmed Fenland of East Anglia, eastern England, a low-lying area of 5000 sq km which has been reclaimed from swamps over many centuries. Using the Fenland as a case study, this paper examines the hydrological requirements and likely financial and economic effects of a change in land use associated with the restoration of wet grassland as a means of achieving environmental enhancement in otherwise intensively farmed areas. Significant financial incentives are necessary to encourage farmers to switch to alternative land uses, but these are consistent with payments made under existing agri-environmental schemes in UK. Furthermore, comparative advantage for commercial arable farming on the one hand, and social and institutional factors on the other, act as constraints to the conversion of arable land to livestock and grassland systems. Most wet grassland restoration is likely to occur on less productive land and to be associated with changes in land tenure or proprietor circumstances. © 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.