IMPORTANCE OF REGIONAL PREFERENCES FOR DECISION-MAKING IN AGRI-ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

Abstract

Agri-environmental measures can be designed at national, regional or local level. In the new member states of the European Union (EU) they are mostly planned at national level. Thus, regional preferences and priorities regarding environmental aspects in agriculture are not completely considered in decision-making processes. In this paper, we prove that regional preferences can influence decision-making and, hence, budgeting for agri-environmental measures. We prove this assumption on the basis of opinions of regional experts in Poland. The results of the study show that an estimated optimal budget allocation for agri-environmental measures differs from the current allocation. Thus, considering regional priorities with regard to environmental protection can guide budget allocation foragri-environmental measure and can help in political decision-making processes to create the agri-environmental policy more objective-oriented and to more effectively allocate the available budget for environmental protection issues.