Land-users' perspectives on carbon farming and result-based schemes

An extensive body of research has shown that land management practices can increase soil organic carbon stocks on agricultural lands. This knowledge has also gained interest among policy makers, and the concept of carbon farming is increasing in attention. Recently, the EU Commission published its proposal for a regulatory framework on carbon removals, in here the European Commission will set standards for certifying carbon farming activities.

Successful carbon farming presupposes that scheme design enables land users’ to effectively implement relevant carbon farming practices.  Despite these new legislative ambitions on carbon farming, key questions remain, and knowledge is needed on land-users' perceptions of strengths and weaknesses of different designs for carbon farming schemes. In this paper, we analyse 9 different partner countries in EU, that have facilitated focus groups with landowners on carbon farming and scheme design. The paper, presents and discuss the basis for designing schemes that are perceived as fair and effective by land-users. Implementing stakeholders’ preferences in scheme design is important for land-users’ support and uptake of such schemes.