CONSERVATION UNDER A EUROPEAN FARM SURVIVAL POLICY

This paper examines the implications for conservation of an agricultural sociostructural policy that in recent years has come closer to resembling a policy for farm survival than of liquidation. It begins by exploring how far the preservation of existing farm structures is necessary if conservation goals are to be achieved. The paper goes on to assess on this basis whether a farm survival policy will further or retard the conservation effort in a period of farming contraction. The offering of income aids to fanners who, in return agree to make their farming practices more environmentally sensitive, is the most direct and powerful way a farm survival policy can be arranged to benefit conservation. © 1990.