Authors: Bethany Beale & Geneva Rae
Canada Needs to Re-Think Approach to Agricultural Land Stewardship
CALGARY – The Canada West Foundation, one of the nation’s leading policy centres, today released a report encouraging the Canadian agricultural sector to dramatically alter how land stewardship policy is developed.
Entitled Thinking Outside the Fence: International Land Stewardship Policy Options for the Canadian Agriculture Sector, the report focuses on policy initiatives that have been tried in the US, England and Australia, and it shows that Canada has fallen behind other jurisdictions when it comes to creative public policies for improving land stewardship on agricultural land. Land stewardship is the practice of responsible land use to ensure that natural capital is maintained or enhanced for future generations.
“Public policy needs to recognize that we can link agricultural activities to local and national environmental priorities and create strong win-win solutions for both farmers and the environment, says Robert Roach, the Foundation’s Director of Strategic Policy and Research. “There is the realization that farmers can do more to increase positive environmental outcomes and future policy needs to provide economic incentives for stewardship and harness market mechanisms rather than rely on regulation and good will.”
Pointing to practical models that are effective in other countries the report demonstrates the need to shift away from income support tied to production and move instead to producers receiving payments for the provision of ecological goods and services.
“What’s loud and clear in this report is that we have to focus on is achieving environmental objectives and rewarding stewardship rather than penalizing poor environmental performance,” says Roach. “We know what to do; now we just need to do it,” added Roach.
Public policy tools being used in a variety of jurisdictions have the potential to simultaneously protect farmland, support rural communities, and increase the supply of the ecological goods and services upon which we all depend. The right factors are coming together for greatly improved land stewardship in Canada
“Canadians have a lot to gain by paying more attention to how we use our rich supply of agricultural land and there is a lot that we can learn from what other countries are doing to improve land stewardship,” notes Roach. “The goal is to keep our agricultural sector strong and to ensure that the environmental benefits that agricultural land provides are recognized and sustained.”