Apply 'cross compliance' environmental standards linked to all subsidy payments

Overall effectiveness category No evidence found (no assessment)
Number of studies: 0
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How is the evidence assessed?

Effectiveness

not assessed
Certainty

not assessed
Harms

not assessed

Calculating overall effectiveness category

Background information and definitions

Cross compliance is when farmers have to meet certain statutory standards to qualify for direct support payments such as those under the first pillar of the current Common Agricultural Policy. The standards could include, for example, keeping the land in ‘good agricultural condition’ or managing soil to avoid erosion. The Swiss Ecological Compensation Areas scheme, under which farmers have to manage 7% of their land to qualify for area-based payments, was made obligatory in Switzerland under cross compliance in 1998. Studies examining the effects of this scheme are included in ‘Increase the proportion of natural/semi-natural habitat in the farmed landscape’.

Key messages

We have captured no evidence for the effects of applying 'cross compliance' environmental standards for all subsidy payments on farmland wildlife.

'No evidence' for an action means we have not yet found any studies that directly and quantitatively tested this action during our systematic journal and report searches. Therefore we have been unable to assess whether or not the action is effective or has any harmful impacts. Please get in touch if you know of such a study for this action.

About key messages

Key messages provide a descriptive index to studies we have found that test this intervention.

Studies are not directly comparable or of equal value. When making decisions based on this evidence, you should consider factors such as study size, study design, reported metrics and relevance of the study to your situation, rather than simply counting the number of studies that support a particular interpretation.

Please cite as:

Dicks, L.V., Ashpole, J.E., Dänhardt, J., James, K., Jönsson, A., Randall, N., Showler, D.A., Smith, R.K., Turpie, S., Williams, D.R. & Sutherland, W.J. (2020) Farmland Conservation. Pages 283-321 in: W.J. Sutherland, L.V. Dicks, S.O. Petrovan & R.K. Smith (eds) What Works in Conservation 2020. Open Book Publishers, Cambridge, UK.

Where has this evidence come from?

List of journals searched by synopsis

All the journals searched for all synopses

This Action forms part of the Action Synopsis:

Farmland Conservation

Related Actions

Actions	Effectiveness	Studies	Category
Support or maintain low intensity agricultural systems Action Link	No evidence found (no assessment)	0	Synopsis Link
Manage hedgerows to benefit wildlife (includes no spray, gap-filling and laying) Action Link	Likely to be beneficial	20	Synopsis Link
Provide or retain set-aside areas in farmland Action Link	Beneficial	54	Synopsis Link