Download - OECD AND ITS GLOBAL PARTNERS
Lessons learned and future directions of OECD workon agri-environmental indicators
Kevin Parris, Agricultural Policies and Environment Division, OECD,
Paris, France
Presentation to the Joint Task Force on Environmental Indicators, UNECE
Committee on Environmental Policy, Geneva, Switzerland, 31 October, 2012
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OECD AND ITS GLOBAL PARTNERS
Membership has expanded over OECD’s 50 year history to embrace 34 countries and the European Union:
AustraliaAustriaBelgiumCanadaChileCzech RepublicDenmark
EstoniaFinlandFranceGermanyGreeceHungaryIceland
IrelandIsraelItalyJapanKoreaLuxembourgMexico
NetherlandsNew Zealand NorwayPolandSloveniaPortugalSlovak Republic
SpainSweden Switzerland TurkeyUnited KingdomUnited States
OECD is currently in accession talks with: Russia
and enhanced engagement with: Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, South Africa
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1993 – 2001
Environmental Indicators for Agriculture: Volumes 1, 2, and 3
2001 – 2011
7 Expert Meetings: Biodiversity, Landscapes, Soil Organic Carbon, Soil Erosion/Biodiversity, Land Conservation, Farm Management, and Water Use and Water Quality
Washington, D.C., United States, Workshop (2007)
Environmental Performance of Agriculture in OECD Countries since 1990, summary At A Glance and Electronic Database (2008)
Leysin, Switzerland Workshop (March,2010)
Zaragoza, Spain, Workshop on Water Information Systems (May 2010)
Working with OECD countries (e.g. Canada, Israel, Korea, Poland)
OECD Work on Agri-environmental Indicators (AEIs): Past and Present
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Policy and market drivers impacting on env. performance of agriculture
Agricultural production, land use, organic farming and transgenic crops
Nutrients: nitrogen and phosphorus balances
Pesticides sales
Energy: on-farm energy consumption, biofuel production (agric. feedstocks)
Soil – water and wind erosion
Water resources: withdrawals, irrigated area and water application rates
Water quality: nitrates, phosphorus and pesticides
Ammonia emissions: acidification and eutrophication
Greenhouse gas emissions: climate change
Methyl bromide use: ozone depletion
Biodiversity: farmland bird populations and agricultural land cover
Coverage of OECD agri-environmental indicators
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1. Describes driving forces, current state and trends of environmental conditions in agriculture
2. Highlights where ‘hot spots’ are emerging
3. Provides a tool to better explain the causes and effects of changes in environment
4. Compares trends in performance across countries and in relation to environment targets
5. Establishes a database for policy analysis: monitoring, evaluation and projection scenarios
Value of set of agri-environmental indicators
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1. Definitions and methodologies for calculating indicators
2. Data availability, quality, comparability, and spatial aggregation
3. Trends and ranges relative to absolute levels
4. Agriculture’s contribution to env. impacts
5. Indicator baselines, threshold levels and targets
6. Time lags, often environmental outcomes can take a long time to appear (phosphorus -- groundwater)
7. AEIs in physical units, but if measured in monetary terms would be a common unit
AEI limitations and areas to be developed
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1. Work on establishing AEIs is relatively recent compared to other economic and social indicators
2. Complexity of trying to encapsulate very diverse biophysical and economic conditions
3. Many of the caveats and limitations to the AEIs apply to other socio-economic indicators (e.g. inflation rate, unemployment), but the biophysical element is key difference
4. Indicators are only part of policy analyst toolbox, not whole story
Viewing AEIs in a broader context
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Clear mandate from OECD Agriculture Ministerial meeting (Feb 2010) to focus more on agriculture and environment
Preparing 2nd edition of OECD Compendium of Agri-environmental indicators (forthcoming early 2013)
Greater use of AEIs in OECD policy analysis: climate change; water; agriculture and environment Outlooks; and country economic surveys and env. performance reviews
Fostering closer cooperation with Member countries, new (Chile, Estonia, Israel, Slovenia) and old (Canada, Korea)
Strengthening cooperation with International Organisations, (Eurostat, FAO, UNECE); agro-food chain; research community
Future Directions for OECD work on AEIs
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AEIs are primarily to reveal the environmental performance of agriculture and provide one tool for policy monitoring, evaluation and outlook scenarios
Balance needed between simplicity and timeliness (policy advisors, public) and robustness (scientific soundness)
Challenge of budget constraints for new data collection and evaluation initiatives
National indicators mask pressure points spatially, but also consider issue of leading economic indicators
Thinking beyond pressure, state or response framework toward green growth indicators
Key OECD wide AEI messages and challenges
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Gross nitrogen balance
UNECE: The balance between all nitrogen added to an agricultural system and nitrogen removed from the system (kg/year/hectare)
Phosphorus balance ?
Main elements in the gross nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) balance calculation
Nutrient inputs (A)
Volatilisation and denitrification (1)
Inorganicfertilisers
Livestockmanure
Biologicalnitrogen
fixation (1)
Atmosphericdeposition
Primary agricultural system
Nutrient outputs (B)
Nutrient balance
Potential transfer of nutrientsinto (2):- Soil- Water- Air (1)
Arable andpermanent crops
Fodder cropsand pasture
Figure 1. The main elements in the OECD gross nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorous)balance calculation
(A – B)
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Water use intensity by agriculture
UNECE indicator presented as:
(i) Total irrigable area.
(ii) Irrigable area by type of crops grown with the aid of full or supplementary irrigation. (?)
(iii) Share of irrigable area in the total utilized agricultural area.
Water use intensity by agriculture
1990-923 1998-004 2008-105 1990-92 to 1998-00
1998-00 to 2008-10
New Zealand 4.1 4.3 1.4Korea 14.3 17.6 18.2 2.7 0.7Japan 20.6 21.5 21.6 0.4 0.1Denmark 0.9 0.4 0.4 -15.0 0.0Italy -- 7.7 7.6 -- -0.1
Spain 7.0 6.5 6.3 -1.0 -0.4Israel 5.2 6.6 6.2 3.0 -0.6
Greece 6.3 6.1 5.8 -0.3 -0.7Turkey 8.6 11.4 10.3 3.6 -1.1United States 9.1 8.4 7.7 -0.8 -1.7Mexico 11.4 12.2 10.7 1.5 -1.7France 3.3 3.1 2.6 -0.6 -2.2Chile 18.1 15.2 -2.4Portugal 10.4 10.4 7.3 0.0 -3.8
Australia5 8.7 4.9 3.7 -13.2 -4.1
Irrigation water application rates2 Average annual % change
Megalitres per hectare of irrigated land
% per annum
-5.0 -3.0 -1.0 1.0
1990-92 to 1998-00
1998-00 to 2008-10
-13.2%//
-15%//
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Cropping and livestock patterns
UNECE presented as:
(i) Total area of the major agricultural land uses (arable, permanent grassland and permanent crops).
(ii) Trends in the share of major agricultural land uses in total utilized agricultural area.
(iii) Livestock numbers of major livestock types (cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and poultry).
(iv) Trends in the share of the major livestock types.
Indicators iii + iv in nutrient balance, but necessary on their own?
Visit the OECD website:Agri-environmental indicators: www.oecd.org/tad/env/indicators
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