Environmental benefit, side effects and objective-oriented financing of agri-environmental measures: case study of Poland

In this paper we investigate how to allocate the available budget for agri-environmental measures to maximise environmental benefits and to minimise potential negative side effects resulting for farmers from the implementation of agri-environmental measures. According to the governmental and EU regulations farmers should be fully reimbursed with compensation payments for the implementation of agri-environmental measures and thus for their environmental services. However, research results from Poland show that negative side effects, such as income losses, were not totally compensated in Poland in the first years after the accession to the European Union. The investigation proves significant dependences between the environmental benefit, side effects resulting for farmers, and an objective-oriented budget allocation for agri-environmental measures in the Subcarpathia region studied