Environmental stewardship in UK agriculture: A comparison of the Environmentally Sensitive Area programme and the Countryside Stewardship Scheme in South East England

Research into the adaption of Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS) has typically sought to identify the defining characteristics of participan ts add the 'barriers to entry' that dissuade others from joining. More rece ntly, attention has focused on the motivation of participants and non-parti cipants in helping to understand patterns of participation. This paper comp ares the pattern of participation in two distinct schemes operating in Sout h East England. Indirect evidence suggests that scheme design and implement ation is influencing the type of farmer joining and their motivation for do ing so. Results from a survey of farmers also support the idea that the sch emes are recruiting from different sections of the farming community. ESA f armers are largely motivated by financial gain, whereas those enrolling lan d in the Countryside Stewardship Scheme have more clearly defined conservat ion motives. Although there is also a 'core' of resistant non-participants, further changes to the design and delivery of policy could encourage a lar ge number of 'potential enrolers' to join. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. A ll rights reserved.