Coordinating environmental policies for biodiversity: the agri-environmental collectives in the Netherlands

Preserving or improving biodiversity outcomes requires a coordinated approach across policy levels and land managers. Agri-environmental collectives in the Netherlands adapt environmental policies to local conditions and coordinate the conservation efforts of their members. This paper describes the functions performed by the Dutch collectives through a meso-institutional lens and assesses whether the effectiveness of agri-environmental schemes has improved since the introduction of the collective approach. To this end, we use a case study of one of the Dutch collectives, and a mixed-methods approach including interviews and quantitative assessments of changes in the spatial coordination of the agri-environmental scheme for meadow bird conservation since the introduction of the collective scheme. The analysis shows an increase in contracted farmland area and spatial coordination of the contracted measures on these farmlands. The results highlight the potential value of the collective approach for the implementation of environmental policies for biodiversity.