ORGANISATION DE COOPÉRATION ET DE DEVELOPMENT ÉCONOMIQUES OECD OCDE ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT OECD AGRI-ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS AND FUTURE PLANS Kevin Parris, OECD Agriculture Directorate Agenda Item 5.3 “Recent developments on Agri-environmental Indicators” Eurostat, Working Group Agriculture and Environment, 29-30 June 2006, Luxembourg 1 Directorate for Food, Agriculture, and Fisheries 1

Why is OECD establishing a set of agri-environmental indicators (AEIs)? To communicate to policy makers and the public the state and trends of environmental conditions in agriculture As a tool for policy monitoring, evaluation and projections

How did OECD select its set of AEIs? A series of 7 Expert Meeting, hosted by OECD member countries (2001-2004), covering: Biodiversity, Landscape, Soil Organic Carbon, Soil Erosion and Biodiversity, Land Conservation, Water Use and Water Quality, Farm Management Peer review by OECD member countries through the OECD Joint Working Party on Agriculture, which has included input from Eurostat and the European Environment Agency (EEA)

What do the OECD set of key AEIs cover? Stock of natural resources: soils, water, biodiversity (genetic, species, habitats) Environmental emissions: water (nutrients, pesticides), air (ammonia, methyl bromide), climate change (greenhouse gas emissions) Environmental management practices: farming systems (e.g. organic) and practices covering: soils, water, pests, nutrients, and biodiversity. Use of inputs: nutrients, pesticides, energy

OECD has identified other AEIs but these are not as advanced because the: environmental issue is not of widespread interest across a representative group of OECD countries (e.g. cultural landscapes; water retaining capacity, soil salinity); methodology to calculate the indicator is weak (e.g. soil biodiversity, landscape); and, the data are not sufficiently developed (e.g. soil carbon, pathogens in water)

How did OECD collect primary data to calculate AEIs? AEIs Questionnaires covering: Biodiversity, Land Conversation, Landscape Soil quality, Water quality and Water Use Farm Management International Organisations (e.g. Eurostat, IEA, FAO, UNFCCC, UNEP, Birdlife International) Literature Review (over 3000 references)

How were the AEI primary data verified? OECD Secretariat. Peer review by OECD Member countries.

When and how will OECD AEI results be publicly disseminated? OECD publication of AEI report late 2006 (two parts Executive Summary and Main Report, about 450 pages) Provision of all primary data and indicator results on the OECD website (interactive database and graphics)

What are the future plans for OECD AEI work? OECD Workshop, Washington, D.C., United States, 22-23 February 2007, with focus on what key indicators to regularly collect and the how to make greater use of AEIs in policy analysis. OECD Joint Working Party on Agriculture and the Environment Meeting, Paris, July 2007 2008 update and revision of AEIs

How can the OECD improve coordination and cooperation with EU institutions in further developing AEIs? Need to develop networks of specialists between: OECD and EU institutions (i.e. Commission, Eurostat, EEA, JRC) OECD, EU and international organisations (e.g. FAO, UNFCCC, UNEP) OECD, EU and Member countries

Further refinement of nutrient balances (N & P) What immediate actions (i.e. up to mid-2007) might be taken to develop AEIs? Further refinement of nutrient balances (N & P) Expert meeting to examine OECD national nutrient conversion coefficients and methodology. Develop sub-national (regional) nutrient balances Improving the quality of primary data Agricultural land use (i.e. total area and disaggregated area, e.g. crops, permanent crops, pasture) Input use (i.e. fertilisers, pesticides, energy, water)

THANK YOU Email: Kevin.Parris@oecd.org Internet: www.oecd.org/agr/env/indicators.htm