Development of indicators for assessment of the environmental impact of livestock farming in Ireland using the Agri-environmental Footprint Index

The Agri-environment Footprint Index (AFI) was developed as a generic methodology to assess farm-scale changes in the environmental impacts of agriculture and to assist the assessment of European agri-environment schemes. Using the AFI method, context-specific indicators were developed for relatively extensive dry-stock, and relatively intensive dairy farming in the northwest and south of Ireland, respectively. Both these farming contexts are subject to the same multi-objective Irish Rural Environment Protection Scheme. The rationale and detailed structure of four indicators are presented; these relate to: organic nutrient application, organic nutrient storage, the biodiversity value of intensive grass husbandry, and the aesthetic landscape value of grass husbandry practice. Sixteen other indicators are detailed in Supplementary material. The majority of the indicators developed involved risk assessment of farm management practices, as a proxy (surrogate) means to assess environmental state. In this sense, they provide an indirect measure or estimate of likely environmental quality, or relative environmental risk. In many cases, the complexities of environmental concerns required the development of integrative multi-metric indicators with corresponding transformation functions. Wherever possible, these functions were based on known (evidence-based) regional or national impact models. Such models (including quantification of relevant environmental quality levels) were frequently unavailable, in which case a participatory process of stakeholder and expert engagement was essential to fill knowledge gaps. Links between the developed indicators and the European Commission's Common Evaluation and Monitoring Framework (CMEF) that was developed around the same time, are presented. In this sense, the context-specific and policy-relevant indicators (and the method to generate them) provide a useful addition to the CMEF common indicators, especially to reflect the specific objectives of national/regional agri-environmental policies. Despite their customisation to the farming contexts studied, the basic structure and underlying logic of many of the developed indicators may be of much wider use in similar livestock-based agro-ecosystems. A common, geo-referenced spatial framework built on contextual indicators that takes into account climate and farming type, would represent a significant advance in the harmonised development of indicators relevant to analysis of agri-environmental policy.

▸ Development of context-specific indicators to assess farm-scale environmental impacts of agriculture. ▸ Multi-metric indicators combine several relevant indicators for assessment of more complex environmental targets. ▸ Expert and stakeholder input are essential in developing meaningful context-specific indicators using the AFI. ▸ Chosen indicators can be linked to the European Commission's indicator framework (CMEF).