Conclusions

Previous section Driving forces

Response: Policy and technology options

Guiding principles. To meet the food requirements of future generations and preserve the future resource base, urgent action is required of the livestock development community. As described in Chapter 1, these actions need to combine education and motivation, financial, property, zoning and regulatory instruments. First, a few general principles need to be established (Young 1996).

• As said before, policies that address the underlying causes of environmental degradation are generally more effective than those that address the symptoms. When an underlying cause can be removed, the incentive to cause the problem disappears and little monitoring or enforcement is required. For example, the removal of special tariffs on cassava meal will reduce nutrient surpluses, and hence water pollution and, in turn, the need for costly water quality monitoring.
• Policies may need to be combined to maximize effectiveness and they must be adjusted when necessary. The heterogeneity of land-based livestock systems operating in different production environments, and the varying responsiveness of people to each instrument according to their wealth, age, family needs and status, requires policies that complement and enhance each other. For example, to make arid range-livestock systems more sustainable, market pricing for livestock products needs to be accompanied by, among others, institutional changes in access to key resources and employment generation outside the sector; and
• Policies and programmes that have perverse or unintended effects on the environment should be replaced by those more precisely targeted to the prime policy objective. For example, a targeted incomes subsidy for the European farmer, especially if linked with environmental and landscape objectives, is environmentally much friendlier than the current price support practices.

The choice of policies should carefully consider the quality of local institutions, infrastructure and the level of income. Where institutions are weak, and/or the polluter or degrader is difficult to identify (i.e. non-point source pollution), regulations are difficult to enforce and more reliance has to be placed on financial instruments. Zoning and regulatory instruments fit better where the polluter or degrader can be unmistakably identified (point source pollution) and government has the financial resources to establish the infrastructure and reliable institutions to enforce environmental regulations.

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