Multicriteria analysis on effective financing of agri-environmental measures and conflicts between environmental objectives

The main objective of the paper is to investigate effective financing scenarios for agri-environmental measures with regard to the environmental benefit, considering regional policy priorities. By means of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and a Linear Programming (LP) approach we conduct multicriteria analysis and investigate conflicts between environmental objectives as well as their influence on financing scenarios for agri-environmental measures. The analysis is based on an explorative case study conducted in Poland in the Subcarpathia region and on interviews with agricultural experts. The results show that the budget allocation for agri-environmental measures is considerably dependent on preferences given to environmental objectives within political strategies, and visible conflicts between the objectives exist in different financing scenarios. The findings can be helpful in supporting political decision-making processes interactively and can also be transferred to other countries in order to scientifically support planning and financing of agri-environmental measures in future.