Land-use competition or compatibility between nature conservation and agriculture? The impact of protected areas on German standard farmland values

Abstract

Agricultural land provides many different services resulting in a high competition between agricultural production, residential purposes and nature conservation. To give more insight into the competition between nature conservation and agriculture, this study empirically analyzes the impact of nature conservation on German standard farmland values by including the shares of different protected areas in a spatiotemporal regression model. The results indicate that nature conservation can influence standard farmland values, but the magnitude and direction of the effect differ depending on the type of protected area, the type of land use and by region. While there is evidence that protected areas can have a price-decreasing impact on arable land, standard farmland values for grassland tend to be mainly affected positively in the study area. Thus, the results suggest that there is not only land-use competition, but also compatibility between agricultural production and nature conservation.