39 - Monitoring agri-environmental systems – evaluating environmental impacts

Programme manager:

Programme director:

Objective

To quantify how agricultural production in Switzerland impacts different environmental dimensions (including ecosystem services where relevant) and how the environmental impact changes over time. To calculate the environmental impacts at different levels (e.g. national, regional).

• Specific objectives

  • Calculate and further develop national agri-environmental indicators, specifically the OSPAR nutrient balance, greenhouse gas emissions (for the greenhouse gas inventory), energy consumption, plant protection product risks and the soil phosphorus content at national level. Regarding the OSPAR balance specifically: review with the focus on biological N fixing, forage imports and farmyard manure exports.
  • Calculate and further develop different agri-environmental indicators at farm level, the results of which can be aggregated by region or farm type.
  • Obtain, link and verify the plausibility of different data sources for calculating agri-environmental indicators.
  • Compare and harmonise the methods and content (where possible) between agri-environmental indicators at different spatial levels and between agri-environmental monitoring and other monitoring programmes (e.g. ALL-EMA, NABO).
  • Gather the data required from farm management information systems, satellites and online questionnaires.
  • Statistically analyse and evaluate the results to determine significant trends and influencing factors as well as to verify the effect of measures.
  • Review the agricultural policy reduction targets such as the reduction pathways and the environmental targets for agriculture.
  • Make important information available to policy makers and society to support decision-making (e.g. by publishing the results in the annual agricultural report).

Expected outcomes

The results of agri-environmental monitoring indicate whether agri-environmental policy targets have been achieved and where further action is needed – influence on future agricultural policy.

Projects

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