Bringing nature back to agricultural land: Bridging ambition and reality in agri-environmental governance

Reconciling agriculture and nature is a major challenge of current times. In the EU and beyond, one of the leading policy instruments used for this purpose is that of voluntary agri-environmental schemes, through which farmers can sign up for pro-environmental measures in return for subsidies. Thus far, these schemes have largely been unable to incentivize farmers to bring about the necessary changes to improve biodiversity performance. Taking a socio-legal approach, this chapter offers an empirical analysis of a new collaborative governance model that seeks to mitigate such existing shortcomings, as introduced in the Netherlands in 2016. While recognizing the potential of this new model for effective scheme take-up by farmers, it remains to be seen whether voluntary instruments alone are enough to meet the grand challenges ahead.