Multicriteria analysis for environmental assessment of agri-environment schemes: how to use partial information from Mid Term Evaluations?

This paper addresses how environmental indicators and multicriteria methodologies can support evaluation of the environmental performance of EU agri-environment schemes (AESs). Prominent evaluation issues and problems concerning AES are discussed, with a focus on availability of information. With these issues considered, a multicriteria methodology was devised and applied to estimate the environmental effectiveness of an AES in each of two study areas: Ireland and Emilia-Romagna (Italy). The evaluation is based on information from the mid-term evaluation of the Rural Development Programmes. The results suggest that the AESs only partially achieved their objectives. This interpretation is tentative, largely due to the scarcity of quantitative data that related to effectiveness, the lack of quantitative target levels for objectives, and difficulties in determining the relative importance of different environmental objectives.