Foreword

Governments are increasingly aware of the importance of monitoring and evaluating agrienvironmental policies. By establishing evidence-based policymaking, management and accountability, they can improve the design and implementation of their policies. The thirteen chapters in this volume were presented at the OECD Workshop on “Evaluation of Agri- Environmental Policies” held in Braunschweig, Germany on 20-22 June 2011. They cover a broad range of conceptual and practical issues related to evaluating policy measures for stimulating improvements in the environmental performance of agriculture. The focus is on policy instruments that target farming practices with the objective of enhancing agriculture’s provision of public goods or raising environmental performance standards above the mandatory level specified by legislation