Soil conservation and policy measures: the case studies (SoCo-CS)

The SoCo-CS Project is part of a larger research programme titled Sustainable Agriculture and Soil Conservation commissioned by DG Agriculture and Rural Development. In the framework of this programme, the SoCo-CS Project conducted a number of case studies with the aim to obtain in-depth information on the application of soil conservation practices and to analyse their effect on the natural environment. They will also reveal the role which institutions and governance structures, policies and regulations play in adoption of these practices by farmers looking at a variety of physical, institutional, socio-economic and historical contexts throughout the EU. The case study areas are located in 10 European countries. Outputs of the project are individual case study reports, an EU-wide overview of soil conservation policies and a summary report. A number of workshops have been organised to disseminate project results to relevant stakeholders. An executive summary of the SoCo results is available under Summary of SoCo results. Further information and various documents are available from the SoCo Website soco.jrc.ec.europa.eu/index.html including the case study reports, workshop reports and presentations. The final Summary Report is expected to be published online in April 2009.