Innovative agri-environmental contracts are increasingly studied in the literature, but their adoption has been relatively slow and geographically scattered. Action-based agri-environmental measures remain the predominant policy mechanism across Europe. A three-round Policy Delphi study was conducted with policy makers, scientific experts, farmers’ representatives, and NGOs from across 15 different European countries, to investigate how and under which circumstances novel contractual solutions could be implemented more widely. The expert panel perceived result-based and collective contractual elements as the most promising. Although considered beneficial from several aspects, value chain contracts were perceived less relevant to the policy environment. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Pillar 2 measures were highlighted by the experts as the key policy area to implement novel contracts by national or regional authorities, but Pillar 1 eco-schemes, being launched in the CAP 2023–2027, were also considered as a potentially suitable framework for testing and implementation. The Delphi panel envisaged innovative contracts should be adopted by governments in iterative steps and not as a complete substitute for current payment schemes, but rather as an additional incentive to them. Such an incremental approach allows contractual innovations to capitalise on existing best practices. But it also implies the risk that innovative contracts could remain marginal and fail to substantially change farmers’ behaviour, resulting in a failure to improve environmental conditions.

创新的农业环境合同在文献中得到越来越多的研究，但它们的采用相对缓慢且地域分散。基于行动的农业环境措施仍然是整个欧洲的主要政策机制。与来自 15 个不同欧洲国家的决策者、科学专家、农民代表和非政府组织进行了三轮政策德尔菲研究，以调查如何以及在何种情况下可以更广泛地实施新的合同解决方案。专家小组认为基于结果的集体合同要素是最有希望的。尽管从多个方面来看都是有益的，但人们认为价值链合同与政策环境的相关性较低。专家们强调，共同农业政策 (CAP) 支柱 2 措施是国家或地区当局实施新合同的关键政策领域，但在 2023-2027 年共同农业政策中启动的支柱 1 生态计划也被认为是一个可能适合测试和实施的框架。Delphi 小组设想创新合同应由政府以迭代步骤采用，而不是作为对当前支付计划的完全替代，而是作为对它们的额外激励。这种增量方法允许合同创新利用现有的最佳实践。但这也意味着风险，即创新合同可能仍然处于边缘地位，无法从根本上改变农民的行为，从而导致无法改善环境条件。