The project aims at estimating the social value of environmental public goods in the agricultural landscape. The point of the project is to measure how values of biodiversity, cultural heritage, scenery, etc. vary between:

-different types of objects in the landscape;
- different quality attributes of the objects; and
- different production levels (the marginal utility).



The study will be carried out by choice experiments. The values of various types of pastureland (oak pastures, seashore meadows, etc.), as well as the values of elements of the cultivated landscape (field islets, stone walls, alleys, etc.), will be estimated in two parallel studies. These studies will estimate how the values change if the quantity or their quality attributes change, such as brushwood occurence, and species richness. Choice experiments is a method to estimate, not just the total value, but also the value of separate attributes of, for example, landscapes. The values are expressed explicitly in monetary terms and can be used as a straight basis for agri-environmental payments and other direct policy measures. Questionnaires will be sent to a random sample of the Swedish population, separated in four regions, focusing on different objects, attributes, and levels. The policy relevance of the study is primarily to support the development of efficient policy measures. The fundamental problem is that the environmental values of the agricultural landscape to a large extent are public goods, that private markets cannot produce in a socially efficient manner. Historically, they were by-products of food production, but with changing technology, relative prices, etc. they have declined drastically. The threats to biodiversity and open landscapes may be aggravated by the expected changes to the EU Common Agricultural Policy.