Abstract

This document represents deliverable D2.3 “Report on European in-depth case studies” within workpackage WP2 “Diagnostic of existing experiences on agri-environmental-climate public goods (AECPGs)” of the EU Horizon 2020 project CONSOLE. The report on European in-depth studies gives a short introduction of the deliverable’s objectives and the tasks addressed. It describes the process of in-depth data collection and shortly introduces the criteria being the basis for performance assessment, as well as the types of contract solutions considered in the project. The document then provides an in-depth insight into 26 CONSOLE in-depth studies: it describes the main contract features of 5 contract solutions qualifying as result-based/result-oriented contract solutions, 7 as collective implementation/collaboration contract solutions, 6 as contract solutions based on the value chain, and 3 contract solutions characterized by land tenure arrangements with environmental clauses. Moreover, 5 contract types representing combinations/hybrids of contract types are presented. The report outlines how different agri-environmental-climate public goods (AECPGs) are addressed by the different contract types, revealing that differences exist in the numbers and the kind of AECPGs addressed. The analysis shows for example that biodiversity represents the AECPG most often addressed and indicates, that result-based and result-oriented contract solutions are mainly implemented to target single, specific AECPGs, while collective implementation focusses rather on the improvement of broader bundles of AECPGs on territorial levels. The report analyses framework conditions and context situations under which contract solutions are implemented, particularly discussing 1.) environmental conditions, agricultural/forestry background and socioeconomic features, 2.) policy conditions, 3.) legal conditions, 4.) the role of institutions and formal structures and 5.) technology aspects. The last part of the report is devoted to the analysis of contract specifications and performance of the contract solutions. Here, the results of the evaluation of the importance of performance criteria for the success of contract solutions are described, giving a deeper insight into the 10 performance criteria and how they are important for the success of the different contract types. A major part of the analysis is then devoted to the description of design principles for high performance. Here best practice examples out of the in-depth sample are provided. The report concludes with an overview of the main findings, and gives and outlook on the further use of the results for scientific analyses and for practice.