The Eastern Canada Soil and Water Conservation Centre plans to study how or if the environmental farm plan (EFP) process can be used or even broadened to deliver an ecological goods and services (EG&S) program for farmers in New Brunswick.
EG&S are the environmental benefits derived from a healthy ecosystem; EG&S programming in Canada is meant to help fund environmental stewardship work. The federal government on Friday announced $192,575 in funding for the Eastern Canada centre’s study.
After completing EFPs through a workshop and environmental assessment process, farmers can choose from a suite of recommended beneficial management practices to help improve the environment, then apply for funding to help carry out those practices on their farms. New Brunswick has had an EFP program since 1996.
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The centre’s EG&S pilot study will evaluate those beneficial management practices to see if they can also achieve the environmental objectives of EG&S, the government said in a release Friday.
The study, which will run until March 2009, is expected to help point out any gaps in EFPs where an ecological good or service could be set up to benefit both the environment and the farmer, the government said.
“Identifying additional ecological goods and services may lead to a wider acceptance and use of EFPs on farms,” said Jean-Louis Daigle, executive director for the Grand Falls-based Eastern Canada centre, in Friday’s release.
The government expects that this EG&S pilot project, along with others across the country, will help it gauge the cost-effectiveness, environmental effectiveness and feasibility of a number of approaches for supporting EG&S in Canada.
Through such pilot projects, the government said it hopes to develop an agricultural policy framework that benefits farmers and agriculture but also provides environmental benefits to the Canadian public.
