The Flemish manure policy as a case of economic management of ecologic problems.

INTRODUCTION The manure policy is one of the most important environmental policies in the Flemish agricultural sector. The first version of the manure decree was introduced in 1991 as a result of the introduction of the European Nitrate directive (91/676/EEC). The goal is to protect groundand surface water against nitrogen pollution out of agricultural sources. Since its introduction, the manure decree has changed several times with in 2007 the latest reform. Nutrients are now controlled at two different levels: the production and emission level. In this paper we only focuses on the emission side. Therefore we developed a model which allows us to simulate farmer behaviour and to make ex-post and ex-ante policy analysis.